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| Rosa 'Westerland' 27 May 2025 |
Who would have predicted that when Rosemary not too gently pushed me to attend a meeting of the Vancouver Rose Society in 1991 that I would be hired by Canada Post in 2001 to choose four stamps that represented Canada & to photograph them ? So, not that anybody would care in this 21st century, I have four Canadian stamps under my belt.
There was another first for me. In the beginning of 2006 when I had been scanning my roses for a few years I sent a query to the art director of Canadian Gardening. The answer I received from the pleasant female art director was, “Alex try to contact people who publish calendars.” I thought that was it but a few months later she got back to me and my scan of Rosa ‘Westerland’ was on the cover. I was paid well but for me what is important is that I believe that my rose scan would have been the first scanograph in any magazine.
With Rosemary and my mutual interest in roses and gardening we had for years such a beautiful garden in Kerrisdale that busloads of Americans would come to see it and our garden made it in the US publication Better Homes and Gardens.
All this happened because of Rosemary.
Today I noticed a fallen petal from Rosa ‘Westerland’ that has an unusual look. I can imagine that it is a secret message from the rose. Folks when they see my rose scans ask me, “Alex, how do you do it?” They are startled when half-jokingly I tell them that when I walk in the garden some of my roses communicate that I should cut them then and there and scan them.
If anything all I can assert here is that Rosemary had microscope eyes in the garden. She noticed all those little details about plants, even the smallest. Somehow he talent rubbed off on me.
In this 21st century I believe that people have become more gullible. When I tell people that I am a rosarian (rose enthusiast) they ask me if I belong to a secret society that has strange handshakes.
