Now, I know it doesn't sound like much, but I'm very proud of my little, and I do mean little, shrub. When we bought this house 3 years ago, I was saddened because I only had "non-flowering" evergreen shrubs and I was disappointed that the previous owners had such boring landscaping.

I knew enough not to toss anything out until I knew what everything was. I'm originally from MA, so a lot of the plantings were unfamiliar to me. Last year, I discovered that 4 of my shrubs, previously thought to be non-bloomers to me, were Gardenias. I took great care of them last year and they rewarded me with beautiful displays throughout their bloom period.

Also, I suspected that another one of my "non-bloomers" was a Camellia. I had recently fallen in love with them, and was thrilled to find out that I may have one in my garden. So, I fertilized it and watered it and basically cared and loved it all year last year despite the drought. About a month ago, I noticed that I had buds!!! They stayed there for a long time and I began to think thaty they may be "bull-nosed". I don't know if that's a legitimate term, but it's a term my mom uses to describe a bud that never blooms.

Well I came home from dropping my daughter off at pre-school and I have a beautiful, hot-pink flower just beginning to open up. It is not completely open, but give it another day and I know it will be beautiful. Also, I can see that I have about 4-6 more ready to open and literally 25-30 buds present. Now the funny thing is that this little bugger is only 2 feet high and scraggly. Only one main "trunk" and a few piddly branches shooting off at irregular angles. But even though it is scraggly and misshapen; I love it!!

It may never be an awesome specimen because someone lobbed off the main trunk in a pruning gone very awry, but to me it will always be dear to me. To me, it's one of my best gardening discoveries!!! And although I haven't tried it yet, I plan on propogating it, as propogation is going to be my main focus this year. I won't be buying any new plants (okay, well I'll try LOL) this year, I'm just going to divide and propogate all Spring.