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.