Page 248 - Adobe Photoshop PDF

a couple of years the bulbs increased enough that I was able to dig them
DQG SODQW GD൵RGLOV GRZQ WKH VLGH RI RXU ORQJ GULYHZD\ 7KH GD൵RGLOV
always bloomed at the time of our Church general conference in April.
However, with the typical weather variation of a mountain area, the daf-
fodils always got snowed on at least once when they were in full bloom.
0DQ\ D WLPH ,¶YH JRQH RXW DIWHU D VQRZVWRUP DQG VKDNHQ WKH VQRZ R൵
WKH ÀRZHUV LQ RUGHU WR EULQJ WKHP LQ WKH KRXVH ZKHUH WKH\ FRXOG EH HQ-
MR\HG , KDYH DOZD\V DSSUHFLDWHG ERWK WKH ¿QDQFLDO DQG SV\FKRORJLFDO
VXSSRUW WKDW P\ SDUHQWV JDYH WR P\ JDUGHQLQJ H൵RUWV

Our backyard garden in our Berkeley home was restricted by
RXU ORW VL]H EXW ZH PDGH D QLFH ODZQ ZLWK D EHDXWLIXO ÀRZHU ERUGHU :H
made annual trips to Vetterle and Reinelt begonia gardens in Capitola.
The gardens were in a lath house with thousands of bulbs in bloom. We
would carefully select a dozen, which would then be dug, individually
wrapped in newspaper, and brought home for planting in our Berkeley
garden. Frank Reinelt was a genius as a hybridizer and we truly enjoyed
his begonias.

In Saudi Arabia the sand contained a minimum of nutrients. The
water was extremely hard. After 10 years, the hose bib would be so cor-
roded that it had to be replaced. The long summers with their intensive
heat would destroy most things no matter how much you watered them.
The ultimate garden destroyer, however, was the shamals – the dust
storms in the spring. One year we took home movies of Richard and
Janet picking tomatoes in our garden after the shamal had sandblasted
DOO WKH OHDYHV R൵ WKH WRPDWR SODQWV ,Q $UDELD ZH SODQWHG JDUGHQV LQ WKH

fall after the summer heat had broken. Things would grow through the
winter and begin to bear from February on. By May the heat and sha-
mals would destroy everything.
Only a few kinds of trees and shrubs would endure Arabian con-
ditions. Lawns had to be watered frequently. The best shrubs were ole-
anders, so they were planted widely. We found that bougainvillea vines
would bloom spring and fall if planted on the two sides of the house that
were protected from the typical northern direction from which shamals
came. I imported plants from Lebanon and planted red bougainvillea all

244