Tea Time?

     It is getting close to time for our camellias to burst forth.  I know this without even checking out the state of the buds on our two big camellia bushes.  They always come into bloom around my birthday which is the 28^th of February.  In the years that my folks lived in this house, mom always presented me with the first camellias of the year as my first birthday present.
     Last year they were quite early – about the middle of the month.  In fact, I noticed about mid-January that the buds were getting quite fat, so I picked some as a centerpiece for the dining room table.  It delighted me to find that they stayed fresh for a very long time and the buds even burst into bloom.
     January is the one month of the year that we have NO flowers in the yard.  There is holly with its bright berries but, after the Christmas holidays are over, I’d just as soon enjoy them outside rather than in.  So, remembering that camellias can be force bloomed, I picked some shortly before we went on our trip to California.  Their buds were hardly worthy of the name, but the glossy green leaves looked way better  than nothing fresh at all.
     And, sure enough, when we returned from California, the leaves looked as newly picked as ever and those buds had fattened right up.  I think they will burst forth any time now.  Outside, however, they are not quite as far along.
     We have two camellia bushes.  One, on the east side of the house, produces large, pink flowers; the other, in our south garden,  gives us smaller, reddish blossoms.  The latter plant has been there since my grandmother’s time – at least sixty years.  With its sturdy trunk and fat limbs, it is more a tree than a bush.  We lost quite a bit of it in the 2007 storm but, gradually, it is coming back.  It would do a lot better if the deer would leave it alone!
     I was interested to find that the most famous of all camellias is the tea plant.  I wonder if the deer consider our camellias a kind of ‘tea break’ rather than a candy treat like roses…