Camellias and Glass

This week, I took myself to the greenhouses at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Their website describes the history of the greenhouses and estate as:

In 1793 Theodore Lyman, a Boston merchant in the East India and China trades, began developing his country estate by acquiring thirty acres in Waltham, Massachusetts. He hired an English gardener, William Bell, to lay out the property in the English picturesque style, which included large specimen trees, open fields, a pond system, a kitchen garden area, and a greenhouse complex.

I saved the estate for a different day, but I was there to see the camellias in the greenhouses this time. The greenhouses are laid out over three levels, and I worked my way through the first two before arriving at the Camellia House.

The Grape House was "...built in 1804 for growing bananas, citrus, pineapples, and other exotic fruits".

One of the smallest rooms in the network of greenhouses held some of the most unusual specimens.

And it even included a pregnant onion!

Coming to the Camellia House was just a bit thrilling for me! Camellias always remind me of my grandma. She had the largest camellia bushes I've ever seen in my life! The biggest two bushes must've been at least 8' x 8' and they were simply covered in blooms. She often let me pick the flowers, and being a child and camellia stems being a bit woody, they would frequently come off without a stem. I'd feel badly about that, but she was so calm. She'd simply pour water into a bowl and we'd float the blooms, making them lovely in a whole, new way.