Rosa 'Westerland' 27 May 2025

Who would have predicted that when Rosemary not too gently pushed me to attend a meeting of the Vancouver Rose Society in 1991 that I would be hired by Canada Post in 2001 to choose four stamps that represented Canada & to photograph them ? So, not that anybody would care in this 21^st century, I have four Canadian stamps under my belt.

My Rose Stamps

There was another first for me. In the beginning of 2006 when I had been scanning my roses for a few years I sent a query to the art director of Canadian Gardening. The answer I received from the pleasant female art director was, “Alex try to contact people who publish calendars.” I thought that was it but a few months later she got back to me and my scan of Rosa ‘Westerland’ was on the cover. I was paid well but for me what is important is that I believe that my rose scan would have been the first scanograph in any magazine.

Canadian Gardening cover 

With Rosemary and my mutual interest in roses and gardening we had for years such a beautiful garden in Kerrisdale that busloads of Americans would come to see it and our garden made it in the US publication Better Homes and Gardens.

All this happened because of Rosemary.

Today I noticed a fallen petal from Rosa ‘Westerland’ that has an unusual look. I can imagine that it is a secret message from the rose. Folks when they see my rose scans ask me, “Alex, how do you do it?” They are startled when half-jokingly I tell them that when I walk in the garden some of my roses communicate that I should cut them then and there and scan them.

If anything all I can assert here is that Rosemary had microscope eyes in the garden. She noticed all those little details about plants, even the smallest. Somehow he talent rubbed off on me.

In this 21st century I believe that people have become more gullible. When I tell people that I am a rosarian (rose enthusiast) they ask me if I belong to a secret society that has strange handshakes. 

Rosa 'Double Delight' - 18 May 2025

 Raspberry Flummery

In our Kerrisdale garden we had a circular rose bed and one of my favourite roses was a hybrid tea rose called Rosa ‘Double Delight’. Rosemary, the snob that she was, poo-pooed hybrid teas. She preferred old roses and English Roses. But she liked Double Delight. To begin with it has an unusual colour combination and to that a most lovely and strong scent.

Somehow that rose did not make our move to Kitsilano. To my surprise on Easter Sunday my youngest granddaughter told us that she had discovered a new garden centre. It was not new as it was Mandeville Garden Works, a place where Rosemary and I often went to. But while there I found a healthy Double Delight.

Waiting for it to open, I discovered another lovely attribute of the rose. The yet-to-open blooms are excitingly interesting to look at. Since I did not dare cut one of the unopened blooms to scan it I had to (!!) photograph it. Years ago I told myself I was never going to photograph individual roses. I used my Lensbaby equipped Fuji X-E1 digital camera and I am happy with the results.

Rosa 'Double Delight' 25 May 2025

Left - Rosa 'Westerland' - right Rosa 'Princess Alexandra of Kent' and bottom Rosa 'Charles de Mills' 26 May 2025

Even though I was raised by a liberal mother and grandmother and my father, while born in Buenos Aires, was an English gentleman, they did not completely remove that Argentine machismo which in this century is defined as that of a male chauvinist pig.

But in some ways I was not a total macho man. I never was interested in having a motorcycle, growing a beard or a moustache.Only once did I buy and drive a macho car. It was a terrible Maserati Biturbo. I learned my lesson then.

The person who was singly responsible in making me the more moderate man that I am, was my wife Rosemary. I did not know at the time that now we would have defined her as a proto-feminist.

I got an inkling when our second daughter was born. Rosemary told me, “Alex, our daughter is going to be called Hilary because I want her to have an epicene name (I had never heard this word before). It will be up to her to make her name gender specific.”

In the years that followed until she died on 9 December 2020, my Rosemary made all the financial decisions and pushed me to be the good gardener that I am now. She steered me away from "manly"pursuits.

Today as I was looking at my roses and came up with a theme to write about. My roses have gender but I will have to be careful how I unfold the concept.

It is easy to figure out that Rosa ‘Charles de Mills’ is a he and Rosa ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’ is a she. But what of Rosa ‘Westerland’, could it be possibly and "it" or a more modern "them"?

When I look at my  male cat Niño I see in  him old fashioned male attributes. On her sister Niña I see (impose perhaps?) the idea that she is dainty and feminine like Rosemary. I have no idea if all this is correct in 2025.

But I do think and thank Rosemary for the fact that I can call some of my roses by their epicene names.

Iris pseudacorus 25 May 2025

Iris pseudacorus & Hosta 'Liberty' 25 May 2025

 Everything that ticked

Obsessed  

Squeezing the juice

Iris Art for Myself 

No flies to swat 

Georgia O'Keeffe 

T is Iris Sir 

Iris ensata 

Iris palida 

A nightcap with irises 

Iris

It has been difficult to stop my now longish obsession in scanning iris. In some cases I have been cutting the irises of my neighbours without their knowledge but I then present them with a signed scanograph and they invariably smile.

I thought I was finished. But then while cycling I noticed at Tatlow Park an Iris pseudacorus, commonly called Flag Iris. Rosemary did not like it for two reasons. She did not like yellow in the garden and said that it was a common weed.  This iris likes to be in swampy areas so Rosemary relented and allowed me to plant them in our Kerrisdale garden pond.

With all that in my mind it is obvious that I had to cut one of the yellow beauties and to scan it.

No matter how often this happens to me I cannot escape the stream of consciousness that takes me to Rosemary every day when I see something that she liked or didn’t. I am sure she would have smiled at these two scans.