Left - Crambe maritima - bottom left Senecio candicans 'Angel Wings' - Right - Artemisia stelleriana 'Boughton Silver' 23 October 2025

A slash of Blue – Emily Dickinson

A slash of Blue —

A sweep of Gray —

Some scarlet patches on the way,

Compose an Evening Sky —

A little purple — slipped between —

Some Ruby Trousers hurried on —

A Wave of Gold —

A Bank of Day —

This just makes out the Morning Sky.

What to write about on a lazy grey Thursday afternoon? That’s easy when I look at Rosemary’s grey plants. Somehow they manage to keep their colour in this rainy late fall. Rosemary had a real love for her grey plants. One of them Senecio candicans ‘Angel Wings’ is supposed to be a perennial. It never survives in my garden. Perhaps with some hope this year will be the exception. The second grey plant Artemisia stelleriana ‘Broughton Silver’, grows nicely in my potted roses. But the nicest of Rosemary’s grey plants is Crambe maritima. We had large swaths of them in our Kerrisdale garden. Here in Kitsilano it is in one lonely pot. I might just figure out another spot for this noble plant.

It is amazing for me to look at a plant and immediately remember a Rosemary smile.