Three Camellia Trees
The resilience and tenacity of the camellia trees have given me many life lessons, and the delicate, light flowers touched my thoughts.
There were three camellia trees: one in the western corner of the courtyard wall, about one meter and two high; two others outside the courtyard, one tall and one short, the short one less than half a meter, on the edge of the flowerbed; the tall one was as much as two meters, connected with the flowerbed outside the neighbor's yard. The three trees were all planted when we first moved here, and they have been growing for seventeen or eighteen years. The camellia trees have endured harsh winters and hot summers, remained evergreen all year round, and bloomed in winter. Buds appeared as early as early winter, and the more cold the weather, the denser the buds. At the coldest time, the vibrant flowers hung on the branches, lasting about a month, making the courtyard and surroundings red and lively.
It's shameful that I haven't taken good care of these camellia flowers. They were growing naturally, just receiving the rain from heaven, and we only gave them a little water with the other flowers in the courtyard and flowerbed during the hottest summer or when it hadn't rained for several days, and we never fertilized or trimmed them. We basically let them grow naturally.
'The camellia is particularly durable, and can occupy the spring wind in the full moon (Song·Ceng JiliCamellia)' As the poem says, no matter what time it is, the camellia's leaves are always emerald green and glossy, and at the beginning of spring, camellia buds adorn the trees, and the flowers bloom in red, bringing the scent of spring. When the camellia flowers bloom, it is during the first or second snowfall in late December and early January in Jiangnan, when the camellia trees are full and abundant, the petals are layered upon each other, the pistils are tender and yellow, and the flowers are vibrant and lush, no matter which tree you stand in front of, you can smell the fragrant aroma. One weekend afternoon, I specially went back and forth between the courtyard and the outside, carefully observing the three trees, counting the almost one hundred delicate buds wrapped in leaf stems on the tallest camellia tree,
I sometimes wonder why we treated these three camellia trees equally, even though they were different in size, height, and flowering; one reason is that they were in different locations with different sunlight intensities. One day, I saw the neighbor's husband watering his roses with a long hose, and the water also splashed onto our flowers. That's when it occurred to me: the tall camellia tree is next to his house, so it's also receiving irrigation—being watered! His roses grow tall and thick and bloom in many colors, which is due to the variety and also because he cares about them and takes good care of them. I gratefully thanked the neighbor, they inadvertently helped us water the camellia tree, and that's why it has grown so well and is the best of the three trees,
After being moved, I felt a little ashamed: I used to be negligent in taking care of camellia trees, basically just letting them grow and enjoy the beauty and joy they provided, without doing anything for them. I searched for 'Camellia care methods' on my phone: 'Camellia, also known as camellia, winter-hardy, late camellia, originated in China's Yunnan and Sichuan. Camellias love sunlight and drought, and supplement moisture when dry, spraying water frequently is beneficial, soil should not be watered when dry, and they are afraid of waterlogging and freezing. In winter, pay attention to insulation, love fertilizer, water with nutrient solution to make the plants grow better and stronger. 'The purpose of pruning buds in camellias is to reduce the burden on the mother tree and prevent excessive buds from dispersing nutrients and causing buds to turn yellow and fall off.'
The resilience and tenacity of the camellia trees have given me life lessons; the delicate, light flowers of the camellia touched my thoughts. I should carefully and diligently use scientific knowledge to manage our home's flowers, grass, trees, wood, bamboo, and especially these camellia trees, to repay all the beauty they have given me. (Ai Ying)
