Camellias Offer Holiday Blooming Options

    Ed Lisle has a green thumb, and a good sense of humor. He and his wife Josie have a lovely lakeside home in our little town. We have mentioned his ability to grow pineapples before, about the beautiful table arrangements that he used to make for the Taste of North Lake County Restaurant Showcase out of tropical foliage, and even about some of his palmetto hat projects, but this week he topped them all. He stopped by our office with the most lovely and delicate handmade corsage made out of flowers and foliage from his yard. In the old days, ladies were very fond of corsages and table arrangements made from the delicate camellia blossoms that grow so well in the south.
    Ed had a beautiful red and white variate camellia blossom and two slips of dark purple foliage arranged together with some green ribbon to fasten them into the most lovely corsage just in time for Christmas. With 30,000 cultivars in existence, we are not going to try to name the species. Just believe us when we say it was lovely.
    So inspired by his use of camellias for the holidays, we gathered some white ones from our yard to pair with some sand pine and candles in a wreath for a Christmas table centerpiece for our home. The flowers last for several days with or without water.
    If you don’t have any camellias in your landscape yet, now is the time to add them. They are low maintenance and can be used as cut flowers and event corsages. What better reason to have a few in the yard. Protect new bushes from the deer. They love the blossoms. They eat them off our bushes as high as they can reach.
    Please send us pictures of your blooming bulbs along with gardening gift ideas to hollynewby1@aol.com or mail them to P.O. Box 1099, Umatilla, FL 32784. We love to share the fun in the garden with others. Please send me a picture of what is in your garden this week to hollynewby1@aol.com. or drop a photo with your name on it by our office at 131 North Central Avenue. Keep growing…