Alma Russell Letters
Letters of British Columbia men on active service with Canadian and British Expeditionary Forces, 1914-1918. Learn more.
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6
was a fine garden at one time, and despite the weeds, thistle, hemlocks, etc., that grow rank and run to seed in all corners, the one-time garden flowers present a brave front. There are some lovely roses, yellow, pink and white, but the yellow ones most numerous and largest. There are some fine dahlias, too, and their colours blend well with the roses. In one corner there is a large clump of Michaelmas Daisies just beginning to blossom. Against the wall the tall French lilies are fast going to seed—these are the French Fleur-de-lis—the national flower of France, and greatly used in Church decorations. Few flowers have a purer white, and it would be hard to follow a more useful flower for decorations. So long neglected the flowers have all run riot, and the blossoms of the pretty double pink are almost touching the larger dahlia stars, and the undergrowth is a mass of nettles, dandelion and chickweed. A few pansies (“pensées”) can be seen, but must have long since run to seed. The Phlox is a hardy plant, and there are some fine clumps of this popular plant in corners of the garden. For sheer brightness, perhaps the marigolds growing along the border close to the old archway are first. The giant nasturtiums, for want of a trellis and man’s guiding hand, have trailed right across the path, hardly distinguishable as such, now, for weeds and undergrowth.
But the hour grows late—the air has become cooler, and there is a pleasant perfume of roses and wild mint. At this time of the year there should be no roses, if we accept the Persian poet’s philosophy as gospel—
Alas! that spring should vanish with the rose.
That youth’s sweet scented manuscript should close!
The nightingale, that in the branches sang,
Ah, whence and whither flown again, who knows?
In the shade under the elder tree, the boughs of which are bending with their burden of black berries—the yellow blossom of the evening primrose is beginning to open. This curious and interesting plant is like a clock for the botanist or gardener. So contrary to most flowers, its blossoms open at sunset (when others begin to close) and shut at sunrise. It is a great attraction for many kinds of moths, as butterfly and moth collectors will remember. The evening primrose stands in the same category as the mullein, in that, in many gardens it is refused admittance as an outcast weed. We think it is well worth its place in any garden if only for its rare quality of blooming at nightfall—it has a peculiar, sickly smell. About this time last year (when the place was occupied by the Germans) we remember remarking on the size of these plants, which grew in thousands in the Fraser Valley, B. Col.
We should have liked to linger long in this old garden, but the hour grows late. The crimson bars of the sun are nearly level with
BC Archives, MS-1901 Box 1 File 5 / RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873 - 1964. Victoria; librarian. / Letters and associated items from Private Jack A. Gunn, 1915 - 1916.