When I asked Jim Nuccio how it was that all of his camellias and azaleas — that number more than 10,000 — were so lush, he jokingly replied, “benign neglect,” before adding, “and 90 hours of work a week.” Yet Nuccio’s declaration of his working hours is not a joke. For 45 years he has toiled seven days a week — up until recently with his ailing brother Tom — at the Altadena nursery that bears his name, confessing that he works “by the sun and not by the clock.”
However, since the Eaton Fire destroyed a sizable portion of his nursery stock (over 15,000 plants and 150,000 rooted cuttings) a year ago, there is sometimes not as much to do. This past summer, for example, he came home one day before the sun went down and “my wife thought I had fired myself.” Despite his significant material loss, for which he was not insured, Nuccio’s uninterrupted wit illustrates Martha Washington’s observation that “the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.”
To be in Nuccio’s presence is to be regaled with pleasant, nonstop banter full of self-deprecating humor and captivating stories. One that stood out for me involved the ashes of a long-time customer who, before dying, told his son he wanted his remains mixed into Nuccio’s potting soil. When his son appeared at the nursery with a jar of the ashes, following the Eaton Fire, propagation and potting up of plants had been discontinued, so Nuccio scattered the ashes under an oak tree on the nursery grounds beneath whose canopy many weddings and memorial services had been held over the years.
I asked Nuccio about the water requirement of camellias and azaleas, since they are not on anyone’s list of drought-tolerant plants. I learned that once a week watering is sufficient except in hot weather when two weekly soakings will likely be needed, especially in the case of azaleas, while camellias are somewhat more water thrifty. However, as these plants age they should be more robust and less water needy. Nuccio knows of many older camellias in the San Gabriel Valley that are watered exclusively by winter rain. The most senior camellia in the world is 1,400 years old and is located in Japan at a Shinto shrine, while the oldest azaleas, also in Japan, are more than 800 years old and are found in samurai gardens.
Ironically, “azalea” comes from a Greek word for dry. It’s an epithet originally assigned to a creeping ground cover, four inches tall, that was found on an expedition into Lapland by Carl Linnaeus in 1735. Linnaeus was the father of binomial nomenclature, a categorizing system that designates a genus and a species name for every living organism. He gave the name Azalea procumbens to this ground cover, as it referenced the dry and rocky crevices where it grew, with “procumbens” meaning prostrate. However, the genus name of this plant was eventually changed to Kalmia, while “azalea” lost all botanical standing and eventually became the common name — as it is today — of certain plants classified in the Rhododendron genus.
As for Camellia, it was named in honor of Georg Kamel, a 17th century Jesuit apothecary who devoted his life to introducing Europe to the flora of the Philippines, where he was a missionary. Kamel was considered the leading pharmacist of his era, and was known for his free distribution to the poor of plant-derived medicinal compounds.
While Kamel is thought to have had some knowledge of Camellia sinensis, from which tea is made, it is doubtful that he had any contact with the more ornamental Camellia species. Curiously enough, Nuccio says that Camellia sinensis, although no longer in stock, was his best-selling plant for years even though its white flowers are nothing to crow about. He assumed those who bought it were making tea from its foliage, although he never got personally involved in that pursuit.
Camellia sasanqua is the fall to winter-blooming camellia species. It can take most of the day’s sun unlike Camellia japonica, a winter to early spring bloomer that performs best in bright shade. An exception to this rule would be Ace of Hearts, a japonica variety flourishing at the nursery entrance in full sun. Nuccio’s favorite camellia is Nuccio’s Pearl, a japonica whose white petals transition to pink at their edges with foliage that is a deep, lustrous green. When it comes to their flowers, the difference between sasanquas and japonicas is that the former have either a single or double tier of petals while the latter have much larger flowers with two or more layers of petals. Many japonica camellias, in the manner of other botanical hybrids, are sterile with their yellow, thread-like stamens and stigmas either absent or invisible.
Nuccio estimates that his father, who started the nursery in the 1930s, developed around 250 camellia and 150 azalea varieties, all grown from seed. When I asked about camellia and azalea seed capsules since I had never seen any and wondered how his father managed to produce them, he cryptically replied, “My father always had something in the back of his mind.” It takes five years for a camellia planted from a seed to flower. To propagate camellia cuttings, just prior to May’s flush of new growth, detach terminal shoot pieces that include one or two buds and stick them in a 50% peat moss, 50% perlite mix; an 18 inch square flat will accommodate 200 such cuttings which do not require dipping in hormone powder to form roots.
As for the backfill in your planting hole, Nuccio recommends a soil mix of 1/2 peat moss, 1/4 perlite, and 1/4 fast-draining soil for camellias, while planting azaleas in a mix that is 2/3 peat moss and 1/3 perlite. The same mixes will be utilized for camellias and azaleas grown in containers, and you should provide 55% shade cloth overhead, as Nuccio does, if you want to start a nursery of these plants. You can substitute any “azalea and camellia mix” product for peat moss.
When the fire burned up Nuccio’s cottonseed meal fertilizer and liquid fertilizer application equipment, he opted for Gro-Power Plus (5-3-1), a granular, humus-rich product that he applies topically to his container plants three times between April and September. I once heard that fertilization of camellias and azaleas, for ease of remembering when to do it, should coincide with the three holidays during this period, namely, Mother’s Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day.
After spending an hour with Jim Nuccio, I understand why he has been successful. Yes, his plants are special, but he is too. Nuccio conjures up “Meetings with Remarkable Men,” an inspiring book written by the George Gurdjieff, the Armenian mystic. Although Nuccio is as down to earth as anyone could be, and definitely not a mystic, there can be no disputing his stature as a remarkable man. Gurdjieff held that most people go through life in a state of “waking sleep,” in a robotic mode, unlike the fully awake personalities he describes in his book, among whom Nuccio could take his rightful place.
Nuccio’s playful and ever-joyful demeanor against a backdrop of horticultural perfection, combined with a formidable work ethic, leaves an indelible impression and, upon leaving his nursery, you recognize what a pleasure and privilege it was to spend time in his presence. Visit him soon as he is set to retire early this year. When I asked him how he will fill his days once the nursery closes, he said he is ready to adopt a new slogan: “Embrace boredom.”
Although the closing date has yet to be determined, Nuccio’s in all likelihood will shut its gates sometime in April or May. Located at 3555 Chaney Trail in Altadena, the nursery is open Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.. Payment is by cash or check only. You can also put in an offer for the nursery and the 78-acre property on which it sits. The first 38 acres were purchased by his grandfather in 1946 for $12,500 and the other 40 acres were acquired a few years later. While Nuccio is reluctant to reveal what the property might be worth, he makes it clear that the $329 per acre price from 80 years ago does not reflect the land’s current value.
Do you have a Nuccio’s tale to tell? If so, you are invited to send it along to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your questions and comments as well as gardening conundrums and successes are always welcome.
California native of the Week: You might think manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.), that classic California native, would have little in common with the East Asian azalea, yet both of them belong to the heather family (Ericaceae). All plants in this family, which include blueberries and cranberries, are partial to soil with an acidic pH. Yet, while all parts of the azalea are toxic and it is dangerous to consume honey made by bees that harvest nectar from azalea flowers, honey made from manzanita nectar, on the other hand, is highly prized for its unusual sweetness, with a flavor that suggests caramel, butterscotch, and vanilla. I have seldom seen the fruit (manzanita means “little apple” in Spanish) for which this plant is named. The reason for this is that — in Southern California — native bumblebees responsible for vibrations that move pollen to stigma in those urn-shaped manzanita flowers are in steep decline, by as much as 98% of their previous numbers. These bumblebees grasp hold of manzanita flowers and through “buzz pollination” or sonication dislodge pollen, allowing it to move from a stamen until it rests on a stigma so that a seed and a fruit can begin to form.
