By Beatrice Lee, bostonese.com columnist
Camilla is a symbol of rich and noble. A Chinese plant to keep during holidays. The full bloom flower of this kind: two inches diameter multiple petals in Chinese “red”, started out like a tiny seed on the branch, then gradually the little bud gets bigger and bigger.
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You don’t see this Camilla blooming for three weeks indoor here in freezing “neck of the wood” here in New England, only in my living room BAY window. There are 15 on the branches. Each is 2″ diameter lasting for three weeks since Christmas. Believe it or not(see decoration of Santa Claus that Frances, my buddy’, husband Arthur hand made that.
Thanks to David for transporting this giant five feet plant to my house as a gift from Dr. and Mrs Shihying and Lena Lee in Lincoln.
It’s very interesting to watch it unfolding little bit everyday. In Chongqing, China, our family back yard, we must have twenty or more kinds in different colors or sizes. I saw it in California too. New England can’t grow Camilla outdoors (maybe just summertime).
You can see different kind of flowers in these pictures above. Fish means plentiful. Everyone wants that wish during the New Year. Remember in the Chinese festival dinners? We always have “fish” at the end. You are not supposed to “finish” and always have some fish left over. As “fish” and “plentiful” sounds the same in Mandarin Chinese, not in Shanghai dialect or Cantonese as far as I know. Chongqing dialect are the same too.
So, I just want to wish everyone a plentiful and healthy Chinese New Year of Horse (started on Jan. 31, 2014)!
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