Olive Fitzhardinge

Conacher of Crona, Warrawee,[8] were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, and through it Victorian Medievalism.

[9] They cultivated quiet Country Life interiors furnished with old things and lit with tallow candles in medieval candlesticks.

[15] It lent depth to Olive's interest that she married into a pre-Conquest, west of England family ennobled by Henry II in the twelfth century.

Fitzhardinge, a prominent Sydney solicitor from the second generation of the well-known NSW legal family founded in the 1840s by W.G.A.

[17][18][19][20] Hardinge and Olive lived at Cremorne Point for some years but in 1917 bought 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) with a northerly aspect and good volcanic soil at Warrawee 21 km northwest of Sydney.

[5][7][25][26] As well-to-do citizens of the Empire they followed London manners and taste: in a world of "lounge" rooms they kept to a drawing-room.

[35] Because she was wealthy and related to prominent people in the history of New South Wales, her activities as a rose breeder were unusually well reported.

[7][39][40] In 1937 Dr Fitzhardinge, Olive and their surviving son moved to Wongalong, a sheep and cattle property at Mandurama (pr.

[7][41][42] Despite her intentions, Mrs Fitzhardinge bred no more roses,[7] though she continued to grow them in "drought, many high winds, and mineralised water.

[45] Her son Colin, married to the writer Joan Phipson, inherited Wongalong and her rose 'Warrawee' was still growing there in 1980.

She knew people who ran big pasture and stock breeding businesses in country NSW and the Northern Territory.

'[14] To that extent she had commercial ambitions for her work, unlike her friend Alister Clark or North Shore successor Frank Riethmuller.

'Warrawee' especially received enthusiastic press notices, emphasising the ladylike quality of the rose, said to be due to its being bred by a lady.

The 1967 edition of his Better Roses prints a list of eighty "highly prized cultivars" from Australia and New Zealand.