Brenda Viney

Twenty Twenty was not a good year for me between a pandemic and the death of my Rosemary on December. Twenty twenty one has had a few pleasant distractions. Most of them have been botanical or feline.

One of botanical ones was the yearly Vancouver Rose Society open gardens. In the beginning of June I had many visitors, and between the hosting by my youngest daughter Hilary and her assistant, my male cat Niño, I had some fun.

Today I had the pleasure of going to the Vancouver Rose Society’s yearly picnic get together. It was at former president of the society's garden, Brenda Viney who lives in Coquitlam. She has a very large rose garden.

But, and this is most important, it is a garden that my Rosemary admired and would have had a lovely time in it this year. Why?

Many who are participants of plant societies tend to grow a monoculture. Viney has roses, many roses but she has a variety of fabulous perennials. Rosemary would have approved of Viney’s generous use of that South American verbena, Verbena bonariensis.

And as a card carrying member of the American Hosta Society I have to point out that Viney has handsome and very large specimens. Not only that, some of her hostas are not the usual ones. There is a somewhat little known fact that hostas, when they reach maturity, should be left alone. Nothing bothers me more than when friends ask me, “When are you going to split your hostas? I would like some of them.” Viney has obviously been botanically correct in not sharing them.

Dahlia 'Bodacious' & Hosta 'Julie Morss

 Her roses are all in splendid shape, but I played Rosemary and looked at the other plants. Two stood out. One was Dahlia ‘Bodaceous’ and the other, a not run-of-the-mill hosta called Julie Morss. Vine’s dahlia was in open splendour as you entered her front garden. But I was attracted to a bloom that had not quite opened.

With roses, particularly the moss roses, the buds are beautiful before they open. In the last few years I have discovered the beauty of the often ignored hosta flowers. Like moss roses, they too, display elegance and poise unopened.

All in all the day was most pleasant. What a luxury to be surrounded by people with shared interests on a day that was not too hot.

Thank you Brenda and Al (her suffering husband who is responsible for dealing with pruned stuff).