Shortly after the world lost the sweet and rare wonder beagle, I purchased a Camellia japonica 'Magnoliaeflora' in her honor (her rather lovely human-given name was 'Magnolia' or 'Mags' for short). It's first flower opened today - a lovely and sweet pink flower just in time for May Dreams Gardens Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. It's planted just next to her grave.
Such a sweet flower that will always remind me of such a sweet dog girl.
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As I sit here this evening, with a warm fire going (on an evening where temperatures will most likely drop below freezing by morning), I couldn't help but think that many things are blooming around me, that is, if I don't limit myself to the most common definition of 'bloom'. Perhaps things are blooming around us all of the time, even in winter, blooms with petals that might be the growing friendship between a new wild dog and the ever-so-handsome Stanley.
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Could there also be the bloom of discovery? Yes! Today the laboratory's senior graduate student asked if we could all do 'the cilia dance' in preparation for his trip tomorrow to the Clemson Electron Microscope Facility (please don't ask me to demonstrate this dance). He has a list a mile long of what he would like to see - and I'm hopeful for a productive and informative trip. He will look for the accumulation of zinc, an enrichment in the color purple associated with the bacterial cell. He will look for membrane vesicles and nanoparticles and at new microorganisms of interest - and he will just go and for hours and hours and hours simply look.
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Yes, there are other blooms - and yes, those kinds. The Camellia japonica 'Debutante' is covered in blooms, having recovered quickly from a hard freeze almost two weeks ago now. This was the only camellia in my garden when I moved here - and it is at least 15 feet tall and about half that wide and it's a gorgeous green and always healthy. Other camellias are in bloom - an almost-white, pale, pale pink one that Skip on Johns Island gave me a few years ago (that I brought home without writing down the name) - and others, all happy that it is winter and finally their time.
But as for camellias, I am dreaming these days of a camellia path, filled with different camellias - unusual species (like some of the ones found at the Camellia Forest Nursery in Chapel Hill, NC) which means, surprise, surprise - that a new book might need to be ordered: Collected Species of the Genus Camellia: An Illustrated Outline ( Gao, Parks, and Yueqiang, 2005) with text in english and chinese.
In time, as I once again remind myself that I must finish packing, that it is getting time to make the jump into my Airstream Year, and time to let my new home bloom.
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A camellia blooming in greyscale - a camellia that's color is beautiful (here it is last year) - but looks equally beautiful stripped of it's color. Camellia japonica 'Mathotiana Supreme'. This may be one of my favorites, with it's purple edges becoming more visible after a cold night - which means that tomorrow morning, these flowers should be beyond beautiful. But for now? Perhaps I will enjoy this image, this colorless one - blooming in my garden.
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There are other blooms - the yellow flowers of the brocolli - providing color in the winter vegetable garden. I tell myself 'I should have harvested that' as I walk by, when secretly I intentionally let many of them go to flower. I enjoy the bright yellow next to the soon-to-be-harvested savoy cabbages and cauliflower, and feel that these flowers are as important as any in my garden - it is also why I grow arugula, yes, the leaves are a pleasant addition to any salad - but the flowers? The flowers are exquisite.
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I suppose, after some rambling, that many things bloom. Perhaps, even in winter, there are blooms all around us - true blooms, reminders of past blooms (like the graceful, drooping seed heads of Tithonia), blooms that should have been a healthy addition to dinner days before but were purposefully ignored, blooms of discovery, blooms that remind of us a sweet, sweet dog that we loved - and another dog, a new dog, blooming at my feet as I write this. In my own head, a path full of camellias is blooming, and a new home - oh, it's probably more of a bud right now than a blossom - but it will soon be very much in bloom and I will be able to watch it's shape and colors change over days and months - I will be able to watch my new home bloom.
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So - on this day in mid-January - there are definitely blooms all around. As I'm guessing - they are around you as well. I do hope so.
Most assuredly there are blooms all around, we only need to open our eyes sometimes to really see them.
The camellias look so pretty, and are are so unfamiliar to me up in here in zone 5. All except C. sinensis which I drink all day long!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Posted by: Carol | 15 January 2008 at 09:23 PM
Oh how I wish we could grow camellias here! I'm just drawn to them and while I could attempt to grow them as a houseplants during the winter, somehow I think that wouldn't go well. Yours are absolutely gorgeous!
Posted by: Kylee | 15 January 2008 at 09:24 PM
A bud gives an idea of what the flower will be like, but there are always surprises, Pam - I hope your surprises are good ones as the dog-buds, house-buds, garden-buds and labfolk-buds reveal their true shapes and colors in the coming months.
I also hope you blog about the design and plants when you make that Camellia walk!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Posted by: Annie in Austin | 16 January 2008 at 01:27 AM
So many people I've visited on the GBBD have camellias growing. I'm developing a case of plant lust. How lovely that the one you planted in honor of the wonder beagle bloomed today. It's gorgeous.
Posted by: mss @ Zanthan Gardens | 16 January 2008 at 09:13 AM
How nice that your camellia bloomed for 'Bloom Day' in honor of your sweet pup! No camellias here but someday, a greenhouse with several! In the picture with the dogs, is that 'dog spooning'?
Posted by: layanee | 16 January 2008 at 09:25 AM
How wonderful that the Ancient Wonder Beagle's camellia bloomed for you today. That, and the back-to-back (I assume) pup cuddling made me smile.
Like Annie, I hope that all of your buds turn into beautiful flowers. And I also hope that we all remember to look for flowers all around.
Posted by: Kim | 16 January 2008 at 10:07 PM
Ah, the camellias. I'm happy to see them blooming in your garden on this winter's day, Pam.
Posted by: Pam/Digging | 17 January 2008 at 12:45 AM
Carol: That's right - you northerners are perhaps surrounded by camellias after all!
Kylee: Perhaps you should try one, take a look at this link: http://exploraculture.blogspot.com/2007/03/lost-camellias-of-new-england.html
Annie: Thank you - and hopefully there will posts (soon) about that camellia path. I do hope so.
MSS: I do believe that the ancient wonder beagle would have approved, thank you.
Layanee: Well, it's about as close to spooning as these guys have gotten - so I was happy!
Kim: Yep, those dogs. They make me smile too.
Pam/Digging: It's a nice season here, because of the camellias - I've definitely grown attached to them since I've lived in South Carolina.
Posted by: Pam | 17 January 2008 at 07:59 AM