Unjaded II
Sunday, June 28, 2026
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| Hosta 'Sun Mouse' 28 June 2026 |
Today I
wrote a blog about not being jaded and I featured a scan of a hosta flower and another
with a rose. The link is below.
Unjaded
I want to
pursue the subject as I was struck by the strange surface of a new miniature
hosta I bought this year. It is from a series of many with the name of mouse.
I was not
too upset about cutting the flower for the scan and not know what it would have
looked once opened because there is a second unopened flower.
These plants
that people praise for their spectacular leaves should stop and look at litte
details like the multi-coloured surface of this one.
Unjaded
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| Hosta 'Dream Queen' 27 June 2026 |
Jaded comes
from the noun "jade," which originally referred to a worn-out,
broken-down horse which was usually a mare. By the late 1500s, this evolved
into a verb meaning "to tire out or fatigue," and by the 1630s, the
adjective "jaded" was used to describe someone dulled by overexposure
or continual indulgence.
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| Hosta 'Dream Queen' & Rosa 'Susan Williams-Ellis' 27 June 2026 |
Since 2001 I
have scanned thousands of plants and roses from my garden. And yet each scan
becomes a view of wonder every time. I can sort of predict what the scan will
look like but that’s not enough to justify my excitement when I see the result.
Because my
Rosemary was into the details of the garden she taught me to observe what
photographers now do with their macro lenses. I don’t need such a device as my
vision is still sharp.
For many
years I was a member of the American Hosta Society. Its members praised the
beauty of the variegated leave and poopooed what they said were uninspiring flowers. I begged to differ. I
see in the tall scapes (hosta term for the stem of the flowers) why hostas and
agaves are part of the very large asparagus family. But I see a beauty in the
flowers before they open and after. Sometimes the flowers are all white and
sometimes they are lilac almost purple.
This last
scan of Hosta ‘Dream Queen’ caught my eye because of its brilliant white and
its proximity to Rosa ‘Susan Williams-Ellis’. I scanned the hosta flower with
and without the rose.
Not being
jaded has something to do with being an artist. I now almost admit being one. I
cannot stop doing it. That first scan of Rosa ‘Reine Victoria’ in 2001 reminds
me that Jorge Luís Borges says that all first times are infinitely repeated.
And yes, these scans have that wonder and excitement of that long lost rose that
died. Its memory persists.