~a young man's camellia obsession~

 ~a path in Skip's camellia garden (5 March 2011)~

~~~~~

What is it about obsession and youthfulness?

Perhaps the obsession keeps one from, well, obsessing over stupid things and working themselves into a frenzy, hence protecting synapses... perhaps being obsessed about something, anything, keeps you you too busy to care about your own mortality (I mean, me...die?  But I have more roses to plant.  I most definitely don't have time to die today.)

 
This is my camellia-obsessed friend, Skip, holding the camellia that he said was his wife's favorite - 'Mary Wheeler'.

He turned 92 years old this week. 

Wait, I'll rephrase - he turned 92 years young.  I now know why one says that - it's reserved for the kind of person who several months before their 92nd birthday  decide they need a new (and larger) chainsaw because - of course - they must use it atop a 20' ladder because they have to cut down branches that are producing too much shade over the camellias.

Makes perfect sense, don't you think?

 
    ~Skip's ladder~

I write about Skip quite often here - the last time was in the early days of 2011, when the camellias were struggling during an unusually cold stretch of weeks.  Fortunately most of the japonicas refused to come out and play - and their buds remained tight and protected, with the only exposed blooms damaged by the cold.  However when the warm weather arrived and I once again went to visit Skip and his camellias - I was greeted with one of the best camellia displays I've seen in awhile - so many of the japonicas that might have bloomed mid- and late-season arrived all at once.

 
 

Once again we wandered the paths that run through his 600 or so camellias - stopping at many of the flowers that we could reach, with Skip knowing instinctively to hold the flower so that I could take a photograph of it, often while he would tell me a story about that specific camellia - the one that was used for wrist corsages, the one he rooted from cuttings that arrived in an envelope, the ones that he called 'seedlings' - camellias that have hybridized over the year and that are now ten or more feet tall.

 
 

As always, the time comes to let the camellias speak for themselves, so here's a small sampling of the camellias in Skip's garden - flowers tended and adored by a man who is now 92-years young.

(I'm tracking down where I wrote down the name for some of these - I'm bad about that tiny scrap of paper thing for writing down important things!).

Previous visits to see Skip and his camellias:

22 December 2006

18 February 2007

13 April 2008

24 November 2008

2 February 2008

22 December 2009

6 March 2010

 3 January 2011

 
      
 Camellia japonica 'Cheryl Lynn'

 
Camellia japonica 'Mary Wheeler'

 
Camellia japonica 'Waltz Dream'

 
Camellia japonica 'Cinnamon Sensation'

 
Camellia japonica

 
Camellia japonica

 
Camellia japonica

 
Camellia japonica

 
Camellia japonica

 
Camellia japonica 'Princess Lavendar'

 
Camellia japonica 'Tama-no-ura'

 
Camellia japonica

 
Camellia japonica 'Tick Tock'

 

Comments

[Blackswampgirl Kim]

I love camellias. And you have no idea how much I would love to walk through his garden with Skip... I'm glad that you take us along in a small way by posting abut him. :)

[marci]

If Skip's been climbing that ladder for 92 years, I dont guess there's any way to talk him off of it now , but jeez...

[John B.]

When I was still living in Mobile, the across-the-street neighbor had a couple of large, poorly-tended camellia bushes. (The neighbor was an older woman, so she got a pass on the "poorly-tended" part.) When they bloomed, they were pretty while they lasted, but they tended to bloom just before the last cold snap of the winter and so would not last for very long. For most of the early spring they were more of an eyesore than a thing of beauty. They made me wish the azaleas would hurry up and bloom, already.

But these . . . sigh. I fear I must revisit my complacent disdain for camellias. I think it's their variety of forms and colors that has most caught me by surprise--though, of course, your excellent pictures of these perfect blooms help, too.

Thanks for waking me up--and long years and continued good health to Skip.

[Jess]

I'm a big fan of these bushes... more and more so each year, and they are so different literally from each other that I'm sure there is one out there for everyone.

If skip is climbing and moving that ladder around then more power to him. He's in better shape than me!