The Camellia Down There

I had my doubts when I planted it and it has done nothing but thrive. The camellia down there blooms faithfully and in abundance every November. Most years it is well past peak before the first wicked chill of winter freezes the left overs.



Since then I have found other healthy and happy camellias in gardens down there. I was a little more confident when I planted a second camellia in another garden. It has sat there and pouted. I don't think it has a single flower bud on it this year. The difference I think is the soil. The pouting camellia was planted in a thick wet clay. The happy camellias are in light loamy soils.

I am indeed pushing the boundaries with the camellias I planted up here. At least I have the good kind soil. If I'm lucky my camellias will look like this one day in white. Or they could be frozen to death.



I was a Client #1's planting 500 poisonous bulbs today after the rains stopped. 100 hyacinth, 300 daffodils and 100 Bulbocodium. No tulips. After the varmints et up one year's planting and the spring bulb show was deficient, the tulips were banished from the annual bulb order. I fed the varmints special food for almost a year to no avail. No tulips. There may be a few tulip stragglers that manage to come back if the varmints don't extend their rampage to every corner of the garden. They ran out of tulips in places and starting eating the lily bulbs and hosta. Damn varmints.

This garden is filled with a number of specimen plants. The Corylus avellana 'Contorta's reason for being becomes evident after the leaves fall or in this case get et up by caterpillars a month early.



A Weeping Larch, Larix decidua 'Pendula' lives at the top of the pond. It is one of the few deciduous conifers, the Bald Cypress being another I can think of.



I have to be careful with what I see down there and the ideas that can get into my head. It's a different world up here. I'll be testing the limits anyway. It just seems unavoidable.