Heirlooms in bloom

Tending to heirloom camellia plants, cultivating a history of gardening

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

When Tom and Susie Isphording bought their 1922 historic home in Monticello, the garden was far from the romantic jungle of flowering blooms.
Today, visitors to the Isphording's garden are greeted by several flowering trees and bushes, such as bee-inviting Mexican Heather or green-and-red Nandina bushes.
Like many southern gardens, the Isphording's idealistic escape of plants and shrubbery is accented by a particular species of flowering tree that is known for flowers that bloom when most other plants are dormant.
While Floridians rarely experience snowy days and icy frosts are sporadic, winters in Florida are still often filled with brown foliage and trees that are dormant with no hopes of flowering until the weather warms.
Once the weather hints towards spring, the majority of Florida's foliage and flowers will burst back into life and bloom – but camellias, a common-enough flowering tree that is found in many southern gardens, is the exception to this winter-time rule.
Whoever drives past the Isphording's property in the Monticello Historic District will be captivated by the rich greens and colorful blooms that are filling up the Isphording's yard as the couple's camellia plants have begun their wintertime blooming season.
Known as the “Queens of the Winter Flowers,” camellias are an evergreen shrub that produces vibrant, variously colored flowers throughout the months when most flowering shrubs and trees have gone dormant from the cooler weather.
Camellias are native to Asia, where their native habitat stretches from the Himalayas to Indonesia.
Camellias began making an appearance in European gardens around in the 1700s, but it wasn't until later in the 18th century, when the tea trade began expanding, that camellias became more commonly sighted in gardens throughout Europe.
In addition to their wintertime blooms and assorted varieties, Camellia sinensis is also the tree that produces the tea leaves that were imported by the East India Trading Company. From the leaves of Camellia sinensis, white, yellow, green and black tea is produced.
While all four varieties of tea are still produced from Camellia sinensis, camellias have become more of an ornamental addition to modern hobbyist gardeners, as very few people still cultivate their tea from the shrub's leaves.
While the Isphordings fall amongst the hobby gardeners, cultivating their camellias into the lovely jungle of blooms has been anything but a walk in the park, as the figure of speech goes.
When the couple moved into their home of West Washington Street approximately five years ago, Tom Isphording says that the garden was wrapped tightly in thorny greenbriar and behind the house, much of the back lawn was overrun with intrusive bamboo stalks.
“It was literally a bloody mess,” said Isphording.
Now, it is hard to distinguish between the wild overgrowth that once filled their lawn as the yard has been cleared of its once-intrusive tangle.
Clearing away the bamboo and greenbriar has allowed the Isphordian's heirloom camellias to bloom to their full potential.
Camellia trees begin blooming at around their second year, and the flowers continue to grow and bloom for up to a century – or sometimes several centuries.
Camellias are long-living shrubs, and Tom Isphording believes that the heirloom shrubs that he and his wife cultivate in their yard are somewhere between 70-90 years old.
“The bigger trees have been here, probably, since shortly after the house was built,” said Isphording.
In his researching, Isphording obtained verdicts from other gardeners and received varied feedback on the potential age of his camellias. Some say the flowering trees could be 70 years old, but others estimate that they are closer to 100.
Age has shown no wear on the shrubs, however, and the Isphording's camellias are in the midst of their blooming season. The first flower of the year, Tom Isphording says, typically occurs in November, and the shrubs continue to bloom until March.
In recent years, Tom and Susie Isphording have been awarded for their awe-inspiring camellia blooms, but the shrubs themselves, Tom says, take very little to maintain and cultivate.
“I fertilize the trees every April, and that's all I do,” says Isphording. “They barely need any trimming because they are so slow-growing. They don't need much at all.”
Their camellia shrubs might be nearly a century old, but the Isphordings themselves are fairly new to the Monticello community. A little over five years ago, they moved to Monticello from Naples, Fla. The couple was married on the steps of the neighboring Avera-Clark House and fell in love with the McDonald-Guy House that resided next door.
“Every night, we'd go uptown and walk back,” said Tom Isphording. “We'd pass this house and I'd say 'Susie, that's a great house.'” At the time, the home wasn't on the market and there was no for-sale sign. They asked the Avera-Clarke homeowner, Gretchen Avera to monitor the house in case it went up for sale, and she managed to put the Isphordings in contact with the owner – the Isphordings purchased the home shortly thereafter.
In Naples, Tom was a master gardener and owned a lawn and landscaping business for 10 years – giving him the experience needed to tackle the gardening projects of his new home, undoubtedly lending to what has turned their lawn-scape garden into a winter jungle of heirloom camellias.