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| Rosa 'Emily Carr' 14 May, 2025 |
Pulling a Garry Winogrand
It was sometime in 1991 when my Rosemary informed me, “Alex, tonight we are going to a meeting of the Vancouver Rose Society at Van Dusen’s Floral Hall."
We had moved from our strata title home in Burnaby 1986 to a splendid corner garden home in Kerrisdale. Rosemary was the expert gardener and I was the parvenu. By 1991 I was crazy about hostas. I had no time for roses.
When we arrived at the Floral Hall we sat on extremely had chairs. There were some boring announcements and they then turned of the lights to project slides. At this point I told Rosemary, “Why are we sitting on uncomfortable chairs and watching 100 bad slides of roses?”
Rosemary persisted with her interest and roses and I finally caught on. I did swear to myself that I would never photograph roses, especially with noon harsh light.
My “road to Damascus”moment happened on a lazy summer afternoon in 2001. I was bored. I looked at a lovely Bourbon Rose, Rosa ‘Reine Victoria’and wondered what would happen if I suspened it over my Epson scanner. Now today, 14 May, 2025 I may have over 3000 scans of roses and other plants from the garden.
Since 1991 I have photographed roses only when I was taking pictures of our garden. Today I found myself not in the least guilty in breaking my objection to using a camera for roses when I saw a lovely yet-to-open bloom of a Morden, Manitoba rose, Rosa ‘Emily Carr’. There were two other unopened buds. I was not going to cut one just to scan it.
This rose, introduced in 2007, is hardy across Canada (Zone 3) and yet it is just about impossible to find in Vancouver. As a member of the Vancouver Rose Society only one other member has one.
I cannot wait for one of the buds to open. Only then will I cut it and scan it for my 2025 scan collection.
While all my roses may be different, to me, they have Rosemary's face. She never did tell me,"I was right, Alex." when I went crazy over roses. She was too gentle and polite.
