English Rose, Rosa 'A Shropshire Lad' 8 August 2022

From Rosemary I learned to look into the details of things like in my portraits she would point out that I had to learn to photograph hands. This I did.

In the garden I feel I am now a walking high school microscope. Today 8 August 2022 when I went to check out my back lane flower bed I noticed that Rosa ‘A Shropshire Lad’ was coming up strong again after done that in June and July. I also noticed the anomaly of a small version of it that perhaps will not open. I am not sure if it is because of the heat. And as I scanned the two blooms I again became aware that I have countless scans with the name Shropshire Lad but that the correct name is A Shropshire Lad!

There is another botanical anomaly that makes me want to write a short science fiction story.

One of the most elegant and lovely hostas is Hosta ‘Halcyon’. My plant I smuggled from a hosta convention many years ago and it originally came from England. It is not a questionable tissue cultured ( laboratory clone) specimen.

In the photograph seen in this blog you can see that the leaves are narrow and folded. If photographed in early May/June the leaves have that beautiful blue colour that eventually fades with sun and rain.

Hosta 'Halcyon' circa 2006

For many years I have known that as this hosta matures (at least 10 years) it begins to mimic the rounder leaves of one of its parents, Hosta ‘Sieboldiana Elegans’.

The only way to get those narrow leaves again is to force the plant into juvenility by dividing it. This sets it back and it reverts to those elegant narrow leaves.

My fanciful question is what if we could divide ourselves? Could we live on forever with the elegance of an unruly teenager/

Today I noticed that Hosta 'June', a sport of Halcyon, also has roundish leaves. And most of the variegation is gone because it is August.

Hosta 'June' 8 August 2022