After having opened our garden for visitors for many years, Rosemary and I understood the protocols. There were several.
One of them is that visitors never asked to use your facilities. Another one that Rosemary always warned me about was not to point out our Rhodochiton atrosanguineum particularly to some of the older “ladies” that were her friends from the UBC Botanical Garden. I often ignored her warning since for reasons that I have never understood, Rosemary kept buying the plant (it is tender) every year.
This year the protocol was that open gardens would not have any food or drink available. Visitors just came to look at the plants and most asked before taking photographs.
There is one very pleasant gift that opening your garden to the Vancouver Rose Society includes an unexpected pleasure. A VRS member, Bev McClellan, picks a rose she likes from your garden and does a lovely card which is then given to garden openers with a gift card. Some years they were vouchers for roses, this year it was a credit to spend at Lee Valley.
On Sunday when I attended the yearly VRS picnic (this time at Brenda Viney’s garden in Coquitlam) we were given our gift cards.
I have to acknowledge here my deep appreciation for Bev McLellan’s illustration of my Rosa ‘Shropshire Lad’ and how delightful it was to open her card in a garden full of friends who all share a love for the rose.
Coincidentally today Monday, Shropshire Lad was in bloom so I thought I could combine Bev’s card with the rose that inspired her.
Thank you Bev.
