Rosemary & Rosa 'Dainty Bess' 9 June 2024

Today was a lovely sunny day. I had many visitors as I opened the garden to The Vancouver Rose Society.

My youngest daughter Hilary brought her signature pineapple square cookies and she helped serve my iced tea and cucumber sandwiches. A further and wonderful happening was the visit of my two granddaughters Rebecca and Lauren. With Rebecca I indulged in having a mate from my father’s mate gourd.

The garden was a riot of open rose blooms and the hostas were pristine.

It was a lovely day but as it got closer to the 5pm, when people began to leave, I felt that post art show syndrome that I call the post opening blues. Famously Diane Arbus committed suicide with a razor blade and barbiturates in her tub after her opening. I would never follow her solution. I found another way of channelling my sadness of knowing that tomorrow morning I will have little to look forward.

I imagined that I was working for a magazine and a pushy art director would tell me, “Alex the ghost of your Rosemary occupies the garden. How would you photographically show that relationship you shared with her when you worked together?” Furthermore in my memory banks are the many times we opened our gardens in both Kerrisdale and Kitsilano. Exhausted we would get into bed and we would look at each other and smile with satisfaction.

I quickly decided that I would photograph her framed portrait wearing (as she did for years) that dress (we called it the Mexican bird dress she wore on our wedding day in 1968). I further decided to photograph her portrait in the busy section with potted roses on our deck. One of her favourite roses was the single tea rose Rosa ‘Dainty Bess' which to me defined my dainty Rosemary.

When on a magazine assignment you never showed with one photograph. I took five. The first one was a portrait of the two of us. I nixed that as bad idea. In one of the other four, by accident, our house number sign of our former home which I bolted to our Kitsilano deck door appeared quite nicely.

In the end I added to the mix of 5 photographs one scan of her portrait with Rosa ‘Dainty Bess’.

I will settle tonight with my cats and I will not think of the past opening garden blues. I will imagine Rosemary on the bed smiling at me because of our lovely day. And I will tell her, “Niño’s presence in the garden all day charmed the people that came.” So many of the visitors noticed my male cat’s gentle personality.

Those who have gotten this far can decide for themselves, just like the magazine art director would, which of the five photographs and the one scan is the one that defines my tribute to Rosemary's presence in the garden.