Photographs of roses of many colours, interspersed with less-known and well-known lines of verse about roses.
Category Archives: Photographer
Mid-May
There is much happening in mid-May.
Even closer, we can see the sterile flowers attracting pollinators to the tiny fertile flowers.
From both afar and close up, these climbing purple clematis flowers are truly gorgeous.
Is this what they call a double blue?
Roedde House Museum at 1415 Barclay Street in Vancouver has a triangular plot of land edged–hedged, really–by a live willow hedge.
Another climber hides this fence: Japanese wisteria. This plant is in Fabaceae,
From Yellow Magnolias to Pink Camellias
Yellow and pink seem to be the colours of shrub and tree flowers in the first half of May. For instance, this boulevard tree is a Yellow Bird magnolia (Magnolia × brooklynensis ‘Yellow Bird’). Yes, the × means it is a cultivated variety (a cultivar) and brooklynensis means it was created by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This tree is on Comox Street in Vancouver’s West End.
Nearby is a honeysuckle vine I’ve been watching. In early May, the unopened flowers were
Some Dunbar Trees and Shrubs
I led a tree-identification walk in Chaldecott Park on May 16 during Dunbar’s annual Salmonberry Days, May 11 to 31st, 2026.
Salmonberry is a native shrub, its flower is bright pink, and its berry is orange. Rufous hummingbirds fly all the way from Mexico to Canada to enjoy salmonberry flower’s nectar.
We looked at trees in the dual carriageway of West King Edward Avenue, sidewalk trees on Crown Street and West 27th Avenue, and finally the trees in Chaldecott Park’s
The Last of the Ornamental Cherry Trees for 2026
It is now the end of April and most of the late-blooming ornamental cherry trees have finished their display for the year. Even so, let us watch them bow.
The City of Vancouver has planted 9,900 trees with the cultivar name of ‘Kanzan’, Prunus Sato-zakura Group ‘Kanzan’; it is also called ‘Kwanzan’. This is the greatest number of all ornamental cherry trees planted here. There is bound to be one near you, if you live in Vancouver. And
A French Style of Gardening
Using a burner phone, I was disappointed with my photos of plants in France. Only these are worthwhile:
An avenue of London plane trees (Platanus x hispanica) leads to the Palace of Versailles.
A tree in the Cercis genus gets attention through its bright pink flowers and lime green leaves.
Many male catkins hang below immature,still-yellow leaves on a pedunculate or European oak, Quercus robur, in the Tuileries Garden. Behind is a stand of horsechestnut trees,
What Is a Hedge?
A hedge is “fence or boundary formed by a dense row of shrubs or low trees.“ So says the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
I grew up in South Wales where every little row house, semi-detached house, single dwelling house, or even castle sported its own fence, often of bricks, railings, or plants.
The hedge idea continues. If it is to be a plant, how does one choose? Should the plant be evergreen or deciduous?
Now that we are in April, all the deciduous hedges are sporting