Moving with Rosemary to our Kitsilano dúplex 7 years coincided with the introduction in Vancouver of Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide’. What was and is special of this plant is that it has bright red flowers that bloom around Christmas. It was my job to find one that was about to bloom mid-December. I would go to all the local nurseries. I succeeded but there was one problem. Somehow the plant would not survive from one year to the next. This meant that Rosemary would strongly coax me to go and find one.

This 2025 is the second year that my Camellia has survived. But I am a bit saddened by the fact that while it has small buds it will not bloom until mid-January. Rosemary would have been upset.

I am upset, too as the plant; outside my door blooming, would have made me smile knowing that Rosemary would have been happy.

Few might know how camellias are especially important to mankind. It is the Chinese camellia, Camellia sinensis from where we get both black and green tea. English 19^th century planstman Robert Fortune, dressed (two stories) as a woman or a Chinese potentate and had himself taken in a covered sedan chair where he observed how the camellia was grown, how the leaves were picked and how the leaves were aged to make tea. He then smuggled some plants and took them to Ceylon. This explains how tea got to India and from there to England.