Mandeville Garden Works - 20 April 2025 - Photo by Lauren Stewart

Easter Sunday 2014 - Brockhouse

Today, Easter Sunday I had a pleasant gathering with my two daughters and one granddaughter, Lauren.

Lauren suggested a restaurant in Burnaby near Metrotown called Pür & Simple. The food was good. While eating I thought that there is a definite difference between this old man and his younger family.

I 2014 the whole family went to Brockhouse for Easter lunch. While memories cannot return exactly when the family is gone (my wife died and Rebecca was not well), had I been asked I would have steered them to that same spot. In Spanish I would have said “En homenaje a Rosemary.”

Easter Sunday at Brockhouse with Rosemary

From my seat at the restaurant I was appalled at the many tall condominiums. Rosemary would have never recognized her 70s Burnaby. As pleasant as the company was I wanted to return to the stability of my two cats in my Kits home. It was not to be and something wonderful happened.

Lauren mentioned that she had “discovered” a new garden centre called Mandeville. She did not know that Rosemary and I often went to it. It was and is perhaps the only garden centre where you can buy a hot-dog at the lunch counter.

I was asked if I wanted to go. I demurely said, “yes” as I did not want to be an Easter party pooper.

It was at Mandeville that while looking at their Weeks Roses I spotted one called Rosa ‘Double Delight’. In the 90s, this Hybrid Tea Rose won all kinds of awards at our yearly Vancouver Rose Society  June Rose Show. It was famous for its strong scent. 

A Double Delight of Raspberry Flummery

Rosemary and I had that rose in our Kerrisdale garden but somehow my memory fails me as why we did not move it to Kitsilano. The rose cannot take the Lillooet cold so we definitely did not take it to Ale’s house there. It must have died. Since the rose was introduced in the mid 70s chances of finding such a rose now are slim. This was a pleasant bonanza for a pleasant day.

In an uncertain comparison to Easter at Brockhouse I felt it was symmetrical  that I could bring the rose home and plant it in my Kitsilano garden. A little bit of Rosemary will be in the blooms when it will surely bloom June.

Thank you Lauren for discovering Mandeville.