The Camellia Conundrum

Beautiful heritage plants dot the landscaping of our yard. I have a lot of “favorites” about our cottage, but these plants give our little cottage its special character.

One of our favorites was a nearly 50-year-old camellia that sat nestled against a large water oak in our backyard. It was more than 12-feet tall, deliciously unruly, and graced us with gorgeous pink blooms each winter.

In December, we had the water oak cut down because it had become a hazard to our home. Camellias famously like dappled sunshine, and once the shade from the water oak disappeared, we knew it would only be a matter of time before she became distressed.

Meanwhile, we decided to relocate our pool to the west side of the yard, right in camellia territory. We figured we could relocate the camellia to a spot in our front yard more suitable for her to continue thriving while also opening up our water view and making space for our pool.

No problem, right?

Except that it was a problem. A problem with a taproot the size of an actual tree trunk.

Camellia roots being pretty shallow, we were able to carve out a pretty substantial and healthy root ball on our first day. But once we hit the main “trunk,” we were stuck. We tried laughably hand-sawing it. We even tried just using brute strength (his) and the heft of obesity (mine) to knock the darn thing over. We resorted to a sawzall.

All total and epic failures.

After days of trying, we finally decided to part ways with the camellia and cut it down. I even cried as we drug the pieces of our failure down to the burn pile. The only consolation is that we’re free to move ahead with our pool plans, to the contentment of our kids who have come to view the camellia as a detriment to summer splashing,

We plan to plant a new one up in the front yard in the hopes that 50 years from now, our kids will look upon it and laugh about the time their parents tried to outsmart the grandmother of all camellias.

And totally lost.