Friday, October 14, 2011

Hosta 'Joseph'

The last few days I have been preparing the visual part of my presentation to Vancouver’s Hardy Plant Group for Saturday the 22nd. My talk is called The People of My Garden and it has all to do with the human faces that my plants have. In some cases the plants were given to me by people who were my friends, some of which are no longer with me. Other plants have the names of historical characters of the past so when I look at them I associate the plants to the history behind them. And, of course my garden (our garden since it is also Rosemary’s) is a place where our visiting family spends time. It is a place where Rebecca learned to love roses and Lauren enjoys playing with Rosemary’s cat, Casi-Casi.

Casi-Casi & Lauren Elizabeth Stewart

As I was selecting slides to scan or direct scans of my plants to select (!), I was struck by the beauty of some of my plants that is a direct result of seeing them up close. As a portrait photographer I was never interested or inclined for close-up photography (sometimes called macro photography) of my plants. The image adversely reminds me of bad rose slide projections when I initially used to go to Vancouver Rose Society meetings. Those pictures combine with the discomfort of hard chairs and the droning of the names of roses that I would never want to have in my garden.

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Ayesha' & Rosa 'Ferdinand Pichard'

Looking at some of the scans (I place my plants on my flatbed scanner) I was overwhelmed by their beauty and in particular with the first image here of the flowers of a relatively lowly hosta (it has thick dark green leaves) Hosta ‘Joseph’.

I  hope that younger members of my audience on Saturday will not shift in their seats and perhaps come to enjoy the wonders to be found in a garden, up close.