Rosa acicularis, the wild rose, was named the provincial flower of the province of Alberta in 1930. It grows in most parts of Alberta and brightens up the landscape with its delicate fragrance and  colourful blooms.

Dotted with delicately scented flowers, the foliage is thick and thorny, making an almost impenetrable hedge, to the joy of small birds trying to escape predators.

This day, the sunlight was too bright for the true soft pink of the roses to show  in the hedge below.

 

The wild rose speaks:

My name is Rose, but I am told,

My fragrance may not be so bold,

Yet it’s as sweet e’en if my name 

Were something else, and quite mundane.

“A rose by any other name … “

My soft scent would be just the same.

My petals delicate and pale

Disperse aromas without fail.

The thick protective hedge I’m on

Will guard against the evil one.

My thorny branches scratch and tear

At anyone who passes there.

Sleeping Beauty’s castle stood

Enveloped in protective wood

With thorns to cut and make afraid

All  those who would assault the maid.

But after all those hundred years

I’m still around, for you, my dears.