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| Astrantia major 29 June 2021 |
Some of us who may have something of a talent for visual appreciation are unable (I am sort of like that) in noticing small things. I like big roses and big hydrangeas. I love big hostas and only in the last few years have I come to see the beauty in hosta flowers especially before they open.
If anything my falling almost by accident in scanning a rose in 2001 has made me see the little things. My Epson Perfection V700 Photo has more magnification than the high school microscope of yore.
But how many of us can notice small things without macro lenses or scanners?
My Rosemary did just that. She could see a plant in a nursery that would escape my notice. She would then buy it.
Astrantia was such a plant. Her fave was Astrantia major
subsp. ‘Shaggy’. I am not sure which astrantia the one in this blog is as it is
growing in a pot with a hosta and Rosemary did not put a label. But I believe
it is a plain Astrantia major. She had a habit (a surprisingly wonderful one) of putting stuff in my potted hostas. Every day I discover something new!
All astrantias share a negative feature that makes them smell (to me) like Mexican arpits in a crowded Mexico City bus!
The positive feature is that astrantias are able to prosper in a shady garden. Our Kerrisdale garden was such a garden. This Rosemary astrantia is growing in full sun. It is adaptable.
Photographers with their macro lenses are shooting tons of plants (especially roses) in very small detail. But none of these photographs to me reveal that talent that Rosemary had which was to see the whole plant while not losing sight at the lovely detail of its flower.
It is my hope that as I keep gardening in what used to be her garden that I too can develop that eye which I will henceforth call “Rosemary’s Zoom Lens Eye.”
Because I am attempting to fill holes in my blog as I have had a terrible blog writer's block since my Rosemary died last 8 December 2020 the date of today's scan is accurate but it will be placed back sometime in early June.
