Rosa 'Princess Alexandra of Kent' 10 August 2025

 

Rosa 'Crazy Love' 10 August 2025

In spite of what Gertrude Stein said about the rose (it would seem she meant a red rose). to me roses are individuals so that my scans of them are rose portraits.

I owe my Rosemary my interest in roses and my obsession in scanning them. Every day I walk around looking for novelties. Today I found two roses, Rosa ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’ and Rosa ‘Crazy Love’ which (I almost wrote who) have grown with a sideways face.

My roses surprise me wonderfully every day. Rosemary would have been interested in the scan of the English Rose ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’ not only for its beauty but because our oldest daughter is called Alexandra.

Going back to Gertrude Stein I look at my roses not as one rose, be it red or not, but as a Platonic rose. Each rose, in its essence is one of Plato’s aspects of that world mankind could not see. This was the world of perfection. I think that now it would be interesting if Stein and Plato came to my house for tea and saw my roses.

What would they say?