Camellia bud

Dear Southern Camellia Sisters,

Hello from the north!

We thought it was high time we should write to let you know we arrived safely in the Midwest months ago and are more or less settled in our new home, a place called The Garden of Southern Follies and Delights.  It’s part of a garden known as May Dreams Gardens.  We had a lovely spring, a wet, for the most part, summer, and so far, a mild fall. Or so they tell us. This weather is all quite new to us!

As near as we can tell, all those warnings from you Southern Camellia Sisters about “if you all list yourselves as hardy, you’re going to end up in a cold place” have not quite come true.  Yes, we’ve ended up in a cold place, but at least for now the temperatures have been fairly mild, though we admit the winter is just now beginning and so we expect it to get a lot colder.

We actually sort of like living here on the edge of our world, so to speak.  We get a lot of attention. You should have seen the attention and big fuss when ‘Snow Flurry’ bloomed.

Honestly, you would have thought these people had never seen a flower before, on any plant, what with the way the one gardener, Carol, carried on when ‘Snow Flurry’ bloomed. She put pics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog.  ‘Snow Flurry’ posed for so many pictures. And then ‘Kuro Delight’ and ‘April Remembered’ had to pose for pictures of their buds, too.

Camellia ‘Snow Flurry’ Bloom

After ‘Snow Flurry’ bloomed, the expectations were high that ‘April Remembered’ and ‘Kuro Delight’ were going to bloom soon, too.  Carol, the gardener’, looked at us all the time, wondering when we were going to bloom, or more likely wondering why we weren’t blooming.  Sometimes, when she didn’t come out during the day to look at us, she’d come out a night with flashlight in hand to check us out.

Have you ever had your sleep disrupted by someone turning on a big floodlight overhead and then shining a bright flashlight right in your buds? We know from actual experience, it is not pleasant. And then she takes another picture.  We aren’t at our best in the dark, just woken up. Who is?

‘April Remembered’ bud in the dark

Finally, we got Carol to look up the info on us because we were tired of the daily “have you bloomed” visits.  No, we have not bloomed. As Carol discovered when she actually, finally, looked us up, ‘April Remembered’ is supposed to bloom in April and ‘Kuro Delight’ should be blooming in March.

Now that Carol knows when we are supposed to bloom and knows our blooms aren’t eminent, she is probably and hopefully going to consider our winter protection, though we heard rumors there is some thought about letting us ride out the winter with no protection.

Frankly, that concerns us a bit because this is our first time in a winter climate and we are a bit unsure of ourselves, especially if there is going to be a lot of snow and ice.  Yes, we are as hardy as Camellias can be but even we have some limits. We are now channeling our energies trying to get Carol to provide some winter protection.

And we can already predict what will happen in the spring. Carol will start watching our buds again and she will zero right in on Easter, which is going to be March 27th, for us both to bloom together.  We are not sure yet if we can do that, or if we want to do that. After all ‘Snow Flurry’ got her own limelight.  We think we each deserve ours, too.

Plus with the fuss Carol made over just one Camellia blooming, we aren’t sure she can handle two blooming at once.

Well, that’s enough of an update for now, Southern Camellia Sisters. Do give our best to everyone enjoying the warm south and let them know we are doing just fine, for now, in this special place called The Garden of Southern Follies and Delights.

More later, after the holidays and the winter,

Love from,

‘Kuro Delight’,  ‘April Remembered’ and ‘Snow Flurry’ aka
Three Camellia Sisters on a Grand Adventure in the Midwest

P.S.  If you have any influence over Carol, please ask her to go ahead and protect us a bit, at least for our first winter here.