t. R. 'Bathsheba', R.'Buttercup' b. R.'In Your Eyes' & R. 'Emily Louise' 23 Sept 2021

Today is the second day of fall and as I look at my garden beginning to bid me goodbye until next spring, I can only think of my Rosemary. No matter what I do on any day everything is associated with her. 

When we started gardening she was not partial to yellows but as soon as we brought Rosa ‘Mrs Oakley Fisher’ into the garden she appreciated the optimistic approach to life that yellow brings. I did not have the heart to ever tell her that yellow was the last colour that Jorge Luís Borges was able to discern before he went blind.

Today a sunny day (with me in a flannel shirt) I noticed these three roses. One of them, the English Rose Rosa ‘Bathsheba I bought this year so it is a rose that Rosemary never saw. The Rosa 'In Your Eyes' is a Rose that Rosemary made me buy a couple of years ago when we saw it a local nursery. It is unique, as far as I know, as when it opens in the morning it is yellow and by the evening it is pink.

One of my pleasures that comes with combining my plant scans or photographs with writing is to find poetry that somehow blends in. I thought that this poem by the good doctor (William Carlos Williams was a doctor) fits, particularly that second to last line – you far off there. 

Niña

Love Song

By William Carlos Williams

I lie here thinking of you:—

the stain of love

is upon the world!

Yellow, yellow, yellow

it eats into the leaves,

smears with saffron

the horned branches that lean

heavily

against a smooth purple sky!

There is no light

only a honey-thick stain

that drips from leaf to leaf

and limb to limb

spoiling the colors

of the whole world—

you far off there under

the wine-red selvage of the west!