So all the Asian staff (except Pat) and the volunteers worked in the Camellia Collection today. Even Carole found a few hours to get out of the office; you can see her in the left foreground of the bottom picture. We pruned, deadheaded, raked, straightened labels, and generally spruced things up. In the garden, tours serve the same function that dinner parties do for the home. Namely, they motivate us to do serious cleaning, to get things in order. We'd had big plans for pruning Camellias this winter, and then the snow fell; Ironically, it prevented us from getting into the collection to do the pruning we had planned and at the same time broke, bent, and split plants willy-nilly generating tons more work. Aghhh....
It was a good winter for Camellias, excepting, of course, the two blizzards. There was plentiful soil moisture and temperatures were never low enough, long enough to injure buds, so when it warmed up a few weeks back, the flowers were spectacular. The recent string of 90 degree days has rushed many flowers through their cycles, but there is still an abundance of beautiful blooms.
You're supposed to register for the
tour and please do if you intend coming, but if you neglect to and find yourself in the parking lot of the Asian Collections Saturday at 2:00, I bet you can follow along.
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