The Octagon's Camellia Bush

We have a flowering camellia bush in our back yard. The blooms are just about done so we had to share a photo before they are gone.

We learned from W&R, our nextdoor neighbors and the former owners of the house, that the camellia bush was originally from The Octagon House in Washington, DC. In 2005, the building was renovated and as part of the renovation they uprooted a lot of plants. W&R saved the bush by placing it in their car and dragging it (literally, the roots didn't fit in the car) back to the house. They planted it and the next year the bush only had one flower.   Look at it now!

A little background on The Octagon that I learned from Wikipedia for any of you non-Octogonians out there (I know there aren't many). The Octagon was the home of John Tayloe III and his wife, Ann Ogle Tayloe. During the War of 1812, Ann Ogle Taylor was afraid the house would be burned down by the Brits so she rented the house to the French as a diplomatic residence. Dolley Madison, the First Lady, fled the city as the British approached and, according to Wikipedia, sent her pet parrot to the Octagon, which was at the time a French consulate and therefore safe. Later, President Madison and Dolley Madison moved into The Octagon while the White House was being rebuilt.

According to another website, today the Octagon is haunted, including by the ghost of Dolley Madison herself, who the website assures is "a very popular ghost in Washington, DC" (it's unclear what constitutes popularity in the spectral world).  We will let you know if we ever see Dolley tending to the camellias.

- J