Quite Rightly Not an Electrical Banana
Saturday, June 07, 2025
 | | Rosa 'Buttercup' |
When I saw these 3 blooms of English Rose, Rosa ‘Buttercup’ I knew I would write
this blog. I have written at length how I believe that our human ability to
associate stuff that might be at first thought as disparate is that what
separates us from other inhabitants of this planet.
I immediately connected the yellow rose (grudgingly Rosemary
accepted yellow and orange roses) with listening to Mellow Yellow with Rosemary
in Mexico City in the early 70s and at
the same time the only book with a cover that is yellow in my collection.
While when I started scanning roses and plants in 2001 my
intention was to show the plant accurately, with the day’s date, 100% size and
as correct a colour that I could see, now I am getting artsy. And these days no matter what I do or see in my Kitsilano home I immediately associate with my Rosemary. Mellow Yellow - Donovan Leitch - 1967
I'm just mad about Saffron.
A-Saffron's mad about me.
I'm-a just mad about Saffron.
She's just mad about me.
They call me Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow.
I'm just mad about Fourteen.
Fourteen's mad about me.
I'm-a just mad about-a Fourteen.
She's just mad about me.
They call me Mellow Yellow.
They call me Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow.
Born-a high forever to fly.
Wind-a velocity nil.
Born-a high forever to fly.
If you want your cup, I will fill.
They call me Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow.
So mellow yellow..
Electrical banana
Is gonna be a sudden craze.
Electrical banana
Is bound to be the very next phase.
They call it Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow.
Saffron, yeah.
I'm just-a mad about her.
I'm-a just-a mad about-a Saffron.
She's just mad about me.
They call me Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow.
Oh, so yellow..
Oh, so mellow..
In a Name
Friday, June 06, 2025
 | | Rosa 'Maiden's Blush' and Hosta 'Wheee!' 6 June 2025 |
Rosa 'Maiden's
Blush' also goes by several other names, including Alba rose 'Maiden's Blush', Rosa 'Incarnata', Rosa 'La Royale', Rosa x alba 'Maidens Blush', Rosa 'Great Maiden's Blush', and Rosa 'Regalis'. It's also sometimes
referred to as Rosa 'Belladonna', Rosa 'Carnea', or Rosa 'Tertti'. Additionally, the French name for this rose is
'Cuisse de Nymphe' (Nymph's Thighs), which was translated to 'Maiden's Blush'
in English.
This beautiful rose with a heavenly scent has many names
but my favourite is its French name Rosa
‘Cuisse de Nymphe’. It emerges with that humanly pink colour but fades to
white. Similarly my David Austin Rose, Rosa ‘Mary Magdalene does the same thing.
I suspect that Austin knew his theology and his rose is pink in the beginning
(Mary Magdalene the harlot) and then becomes white (Mary Magdalene the saint).
I have a friend of many years, Clarence Falstad, from the
American Hosta Society who works in Zeeland, Michigan for Walters Gardens. One
of his jobs is to register plants. He had a problem getting Canada to accept
(they didn’t) Hosta ‘Wheee!’. According
to CH (he is not happy with his name of Clarence) they balked at the
exclamation mark. CH says, that as far as he knows this is the only plant
worldwide with that exclamation mark in its name.
Plantspeople & an Excess of Pink
 | | Left - Rosa 'Chapeau de Napoleón' & all others - Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll' - 6 June 2025 |
Gertrude Jekyll VMH (/ˈdʒiːkəl/
JEE-kəl; 29 November 1843
– 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman,
photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United
Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote over 1000 articles for
magazines such as Country Life and William Robinson's The Garden. Jekyll has
been described as "a premier influence in garden design" by British
and American gardening enthusiasts.
Because my open garden for the Vancouver Rose Society
happened last weekend, I can now snip as many roses as I want so as to scan and
write about them.
This English Rose, Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ (rhymes with
treacle) had until this year been a reluctant performer. It is now competing
with a similar rose (in colour) Rosa ‘Chapeau de Napoleón’ which is right next
to her in my laneway garden.
In that past century in Vancouver particularly in the
late 80s and early 90s there was an enormous interest in gardening. Our city
had many plantsmen and plantswomen (epithets used in England) who were experts
on one or more plants. If you went to garden meetings (plant societies they
were called), Rosemary and I were subject to lots of relevant information and
we could ask questions. In fact because these plantspeople became our friends
we would just call them up.
That is now all gone. I called a doctor who was an expert in
clematis. There was a fern lady and a dwarf conifer man. My friend Alleyne Cook
was my go to for info on rhododendrons and magnolias. Alleyne Cook
Now when a question about roses, I just look at myself in
the mirror and ask. That other expert, my Rosemary is not around. I try to make
do.
This scan represents a memory of Rosemary who would tell
me, “Alex we have too many pink roses. We need some variety." Note that in the
scan here Rosa ‘Chapeau de Napoleón’ is on the extreme left. I could tell you
the difference by the scent of by the fact that Chapeau is a moss rose and
Gertrude is not. Chapeau de Napoleón - Moss Rose
Intimus
 | | Rebecca Stewart - July 2005 | | |
Intiumus - Etymology
From Proto-Indo-European *h₁éntm̥mos
(“innermost”), from *h₁én, the root of in, intus
inter. Formally the superlative of interior (but lacking the positive
degree) and parallel to ultimus, extimus, citimus, postumus, dextimus,
sinistimus. Wikipedia
I believe it is human nature to associate words, moments and thoughts with what might be seen by some as disparate.
A couple of days ago I was comparing and contrasting what it
was like to be in my Kerrisdale darkroom and what it is like now in my
easy-to-breath Kitsilano oficina. Central to this comparison is the double
concept digital/film.
In that former darkroom I might print a lovely photograph of
my Rosemary. I would project it on
photographic paper after having it enlarged to my specifications and managed
the contrast and the shadow detail. But I was looking at a negative image. It
wasn’t until the image (a positive one) emerged in the developer that I was
able to discern her features.
I remember how all that changed in 2005 when I took some
portraits of my eldest granddaughter Rebecca in my studioshot b+w film. I
used the photograph in an opening at the Patrich Gallery on Granville. I
colourized it to red with my Photoshop and had Grant Simmons print it very
large. Before he printed it, I opened the negative in my computer after scanning
it and with lots of magnification I removed little pimples, etc. I was suddenly
aware that I was looking at a person in a way that few ever do.
Of course the concept of intimacy for me as a portrait
photographer is that when I succeed in my venture the resulting portrait is
something of a gaze into a person’s soul.
I am surrounded by portraits of my family throughout my
house. I believe that I live an intimacy that is rare in this world of selfies.
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