SWANVILLE — Carol Meiling Yee, born April 15, 1943, died peacefully at home in her own bed on June 19, 2023, following a brief illness a few months after her 80th birthday. She left this realm embraced by the love and care of her friends and family and the strains of music she loved.

Carol is the daughter of Laura (Dunlap) and the Reverend James Brewster Yee. She leaves behind her step mother, Cynthia; sister Sally Jackson and her children and grandchildren; brother, Brews Yee, his children and grandchildren; and a vast cadre of helpers, friends, avid gardeners and colleagues in the horticulture community; her dog Kama and a few chickens ad an unusual rooster.

She was predeceased by her mother; father; and brother-in-law, Roger Jackson; her canine companion of 22 years, Littlebit; her one legged rooster, George, and many other animal friends.

She was the owner of Carol’s Collectibles Nursery in Swanville Maine.

The first thing you need to know about Carol Yee is that she was passionate about plants.

Carol was born in Connecticut, a state rich in Mountain Laurels and Rhododendrons, an omen to her future. She attended UConn, graduating with a degree in English Literature, which was the next best thing to dropping out. During college summers and beyond she lived and held many jobs on Martha’s Vineyard where she met and made many lifelong friends, but even her love of The Vineyard life was not enough to keep her rooted there.

Carol moved on to Vermont where her family had a summer place in Benson and hand built a log cabin with her own hands and tools, complete with a fieldstone fireplace and chimney. Her place there incorporated many features she had come to admire in Martha’s Vineyard and was the scene of more adventures too numerous to state. Under the mentorship of an older skilled craftsman with whom she worked she became skilled enough to branch out on her own. She built many kitchen and other custom cabinets, and moved on to Ashford, Connecticut where she built her next house.

After her move back to her home state, Carol decided to pass on her cabinetmaking business and embraced the love of her life – propagating broad leafed evergreens and dwarf conifers. She hooked up with many horticultural experts, but it was Bill Cullina, a UConn acquaintance, who first turned her on to the magic of propagating Rhododendrons and other broad leaved evergreens. It was he who named her growing collection Carol’s Collectibles. Her passion was expressed in the landscape of her home, which became a sort of parkland that folks would visit and stay a while, hanging out in her extensive gardens and being amused by her menagerie of animal friends.

Then, in the early 2000s she made her final move, this time to Swanville, Maine where she established her nursery, Carol’s Collectibles, and began her botanical garden with plants she moved from Connecticut along with many other favorites over the years. 

In addition to selling plants at the nursery Carol brought a jaw dropping show of plants in full bloom to local farmers’ markets for many years. She became well known by local folks and summer residents in the Midcoast area and beyond. Never shy with her knowledge, Carol could tell you anything and everything about each plant she offered or had growing on her property, making her an invaluable resource.

Carol loved and appreciated plants in all seasons – the buds and blossoms in spring, the bees and butterflies that visit them, the bronze coloration of a juniper in winter, the fuzzy brown underside of particular Rhododendron leaves. Carol ran Carol’s Collectibles until her passing. In her last days Carol told her housemate that her botanical garden and nursery was the achievement she was most proud of in her long life.

Carol will be sorely missed by many far and wide who nonetheless rejoice in having known her. Her legacy lives on in gardens too numerous to count. We feel certain she would want to impart this last bit of gardening advice:

“Fall is the best time to plant. Plant sex is done for the year, the heat of summer is passing, rains come and soil moisture stays more stable, the sun is still high enough in the sky to keep plants happily fed, but not as scorching as in summer. All this adds up to less transplant shock and plenty of time for roots to get established.”

A Service and Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, July 22, at 3 p.m., at Carol’s Collectibles Nursery, 411 Nickerson Road, Swanville, Maine.