Tom Nuccio, owner of Nuccio’s Nursery in Altadena, will talk about the selection and care of camellias and azaleas at the Palisades Garden Club meeting on Monday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. The public is invited. Most Palisadians are familiar with the camellia sasanquas that bloom in November and December, and the japonicas, which take over in January and February. This year’s well-spaced rains produced a flurry of camellias that will continue blooming throughout the month, Nuccio says. The show will be over by April, but azaleas will continue to flourish all spring. Nuccio’s Nursery, founded by Tom’s father and uncle in 1935, offers some 500 varieties of camellias and azaleas (divided about 50/50) on the family’s six acres. Open to the public, Nuccio’s also furnishes many Southland retail nurseries and landscapers’ needs. While the nursery continues to have success with the beloved azalea varieties, such as George Tabor (a big lavender) Red Bird (pink/red) and Alaska (white), new colors are slowly gaining ground. ’In the last few years, there has been a lot of effort to create yellow camellias,’ Nuccio tells the Palisadian-Post. ‘Bred from the wild yellow one from China, the new varieties include the Aki-no, a pale yellow that looks like a peony, and Senriksuko, that shows off a peachy pink border, like the Peace rose. There are also dwarfs, different- shaped flowers and a spectrum of leaf colors, such as the maroon foliage of Little John.’ Nuccio continues, ‘A new entry in the trade that landscapers are just learning about is the Shiro Kujaku (white peacock), a Japanese variety with a big, white candle-shaped bloom. Speaking of sun, azaleas are not cactus, and they do need water, Nuccio says, but adding that more tragedies occur from over-watering than under-watering. Nuccio, who operates the nursery with his brother and cousin, spends his time doing just about everything’propagating plants, selling and public speaking. ‘I’m the one who does the speaking, mostly to garden clubs and dedicated gardeners.’ A philosophy major from Santa Clara, Nuccio says that all he knows he has learned on the job. ‘My dad as a kid was interested in camellias; they were his first love. Azaleas were a nice companion. He had a backyard nursery and worked in a glass factory during the day. The nursery moved from Alhambra to its present location in 1946.’
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