There's a season for everything around here, and even though it is
January and mid winter, in the greenhouse, it's clearly spring. This has
to be one of the most amazing things about keeping a greenhouse in the
cold north - that under-glass, it's a completely different world than
what it is outside. Plants however, are still responding to the factors
that control bloom time and dormancy, and for us that means that South
African plants are sensing the triggers to bloom, that citrus are
beginning to ripen their fruit, since they are convinced that they are
in southern Italy, sunny Israel or even, in California. The fact that my
lemons are 32 miles from snowy Boston? Doesn't factor in.
I love that.
Please, don't tell the camellias that it is 6 degrees F. outside.
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With two Meyer lemon trees ripening about 100 lemons, I sense a batch of marmalade and lemon curd on the horizon. |
I can't seem to have enough kumquat trees, as eating them warm, straight
from the tree reminds me of winter trips to California, and believe me,
nothing tastes like a kumquat right off the tree. Forget the store
bought ones - they just taste like bitter orange peels. I added a new
one to my collection this weekend - 'Changshou' Kumquat (Fortunella
obviate 'Fukushu'. The folks at Logee's told us that it is a hard to
find variety, they have been working for the past five years to bring it
to the US market.], since they feel that it is the best kumquat they
have ever grown. It will make a great potted specimen, I was told, so it
was selected to be potted in one of my newly acquired antique
rolled-rim terra rosa pots.
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I lost the tag to this camellia, but it is one of my earliest bloomers. Repotted last year, it has 24 flowers on it. Too bad that they only last a day on the shrub, and then fall off on to the bench. |
There was a time when every northern greenhouse kept camellias, handy for last-minute corsages in a time before air travel made imported flowers as common as, well, air travel. The original locavore flower in the winter, they remain uncommon everywhere where they cannot be grown outdoors (south of Zone 9).
Camellia's are quickly becoming my darlings - I've added 16 new
varieties this fall, as since plants live for 100 years or more, I have
visions of eventually donating the trees to a botanic garden someday.
Camellias are rather sturdy when grown in a cold greenhouse. They can
handle moderate freezes, which means when the heater fails, which it
will undoubtedly do at least once every winter, they may be the only
plants to survive. Even a hard freeze, as long as it is short lived,
will only damage the flower buds for that season. As long as the roots
don't freeze for a long period, most camellia's will recover. This
helped make the camellia one of the most popular greenhouse and
conservatory plants in the 18th and 19th centuries. Talk about heirloom
flowers!
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'Aye' Aye' Aye', a variegated flower which seems to produce more solid color flowers than it does variegated ones. |
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