Hosta 'Snake Eyes' & Allium stipitatum 'White Ghost' 9 May 2024

5 April 2019 - Kitsilano

When Rosemary, our two daughters and I moved from our little house in Burnaby to a large corner garden house in Kerrisdale in 1986, Rosemary was the gardener. My  little knowledge came from the years that I was a little boy in Buenos Aires and my mother had a long but narrow garden. When Rosemary and I married we moved to a little house in Arboledas, Estado de México. There she joined forces with my mother in the garden. I was oblivious and ignorant.

All that changed in 1986. The garden was much too big for one person to take care of. I was forcibly volunteered.

For quite a few months we had altercations. "Rosemary don’t put those plants of yours with my hostas. They are in my bed." It went the other way, too.

One wonderful day we looked at each other and realized that it was our garden and that our individual beds were mutual. We became companions in the garden.

The again we went through a big change. We sold the house, moved some of the plants to our Lillooet daughter Alexandra’s garden. We were then faced with the problem of putting in many plants into a small Kitsilano garden.

Both Rosemary and I loved our roses (they were ours!) so we put about 30 of them into large terracotta pots.

It was then, when not only were we companions in the garden, but we tried our best (and did succeed) in finding companions that would grow with the roses in compatibility.

Now that Rosemary is gone I have to rely on my own botanical judgment with these companions for the roses.

A few days ago I found three giant plants growing in the lane garden. I had no idea what they were. I took a picture and sent it to Alexandra. She immediately identified them as alliums which is an ornamental onion. I have no memory of seeing these last year, nor any memory of noticing Rosemary plant them. But there they are. For me they are a welcome revelation on how in spite of it all Rosemary’s plants survive against all odds.

I scanned the allium. For me there was something missing. From the beginning in 2001 when I started scanning plants my goal was precision of colour, showing it at 100% size and entering the day’s date. In the last few years I have become artsy and combined plants so that they are not only a scan of a specimen plant.

Rosemary would have agreed with me that Hosta ‘Snake Eyes’is a pleasant companion to the allium.

But I have to admit that if I am learning something here, it has all to do with that woman behind my shoulder forcibly pushing me into a long term companionship that has yet to end.