Helleborus 'Wedding Crasher' - 22 February 2024

The Corsican Hellebore & St. Helena 

Today was a fairly sunny day so Niño and I went for a walk around the block. Even with the weather being pleasant both my cats do not want to stay outside and they opt for getting on top of me when I am on the bed drinking a mug of tea and knowing I have to do nothing. And philosophically that is unsettling.

I had noticed that Helleborus ‘Wedding Crasher’ was in bloom. Rosemary adored her hellebores because they bloomed early in our garden. What this also means is that I can no longer postpone the cleaning up of the garden. This was fun activity when Rosemary and I shared it. Now I avoid it but I must begin to at least partially prune some of my roses before I do that in March. I will be slightly cheered up as when I prune them the Nick Lowe song Cruel to be Kind meanders in the soundscape of my brain.

I wonder if any of my over 3000 plant scans (I started in 2001) will ever make it as part of my legacy that anybody might appreciate.

Originally my scans had the purpose of documenting with accuracy a plant on a given day scanned at 100% size and being watchful that the colour was accurate. When people visit me and they point how they like one of these images (big on the wall) they rapidly lose interest when I tell them that it is not a photograph but a scanograph and that I am a scanographer.

What keeps me sane and mostly cheerful is that I keep in my head what Garry Winogrand once said, “I photograph things to see what those things look like photographed.”

My scans of my plants brings me close to them with an intimacy that makes me feel that Rosemary is near. She was the person who noticed the details of plants as she comfortably sat on the garden lawn or our Kits deck without and visible discomfort. She was most flexible.

And so this scan of the hellebore I dedicate to my Rosemary and I promise her that I will start the cleanup perhaps even tomorrow if the nice weather persists. 

The Corsican Hellebore was Rosemary's fave. I no longer have one. I will try to find one this Saturday at Phoenix Perennials in Richmond.

Corsican Hellebore - 2007