Gloire de Nantes. japonica My first one out. On a house wall; never gets any sun; builders' mess for soil; now up to first floor and as wide; trained flat. Starts with just a few flowers in December. The best for leaf.
JC Williams. williamsii Started in January but has met with a number of frosts. Now covered with flowers. I like the grace of singles.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I just planted a Lady Laura camellia last fall, but it didn't bloom this year. Instead, I reached far back in my archives for the camellia at our last house. Unknown variety, probably pushing 100 years old. Large rounded shrub about 12' high and wide. It confounded my grandfather - every year it was loaded with buds but they rarely opened up. After pruning, raking years of leaf debris from underneath, mixing in a bit of acidifier, and physically plucking off buds from overcrowded clusters, I was able to get a few years of good blooms before we moved.
Large variations of color on the shrub. Some were solid pink, some striated, some almost solid white.
Beautiful thread, @bédé. Camellias somehow look almost plastic in their perfection. And the leaves are so beautiful year-round. I can't stop trying to grow them despite not having ideal conditions for them.
Here was the first bloom from Dr King last year. Grown on from a wee twig.
I love that striped one, @SYinUSA! Another of the twigs I am trying to grow on is Bonomiana, which is similar to that. Perhaps this year, it might give me a flower?! 🙏
@bede I love J C Williams new to me, I agree single flowers have a beauty of their own. I don't grow them but am I correct in thinking that some keep their dead flowers whilst others drop them?
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
Suze, xWilliamsii types usually drop their dead flowers, but not always. Anticipation is one that doesn't, reliably.
My JC Williams drops them early. After a cold night the ground underneath can be littered with near perfect blooms that can last for weeks. Part of the show. And there are still plenty left on the plant.
Here is a japonica whose name I have forgotten. Pink with a trace of paler pink/white picotee and quite small. I know it is not rare. It is some 40 years with me and 3m high on twin stems. It has only flowered for any length of time last year. Normally any cold, not even freezing, and the buds fall off or rot on the plant. I have just noticed this flower, which I photoed quickly; I don't think it is mature yet. It is some 40 years with me and 3m high on twin stems. I keep it because it for its leaves, stature and for what it blocks out.
I'm not going to generalise, or tempt fate, but all my Camellias have escaped or resisted my raging honey fungus. And so has my beech hege.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
@bede I have looked on line. It would seem that some C japonicas can hold on to their brown flowers and require deadheading [that's a joke on a large shrub] More likely to be the older varieties. Flowers on C Williamsii fall. Athough as you say this doesn't seem to be the case all the time. If I was buying a Camellia I think I would check this out, personally I think they look much better when there are new buds opening and no browning flowers remaining....
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
Our camellia are flowering quite a bit later this year, and we have lost lots of buds because of the very cold wrather, which is a shame. This one has finally opened, I don't know it's name though
Camellia is on the RHS honey fungus susceptibility list as "rarely affected", @bédé. I don't think they'll lable any plant as immune to attack though. I bought a small camellia for the area of my garden which has honey fungus and neutral soil (most of it is rather alkaline). But the tree which was to shade it from morning sun has died... of honey fungus. It's going in a big pot round the west-facing side of the house.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Posts
Gloire de Nantes. japonica
My first one out. On a house wall; never gets any sun; builders' mess for soil; now up to first floor and as wide; trained flat. Starts with just a few flowers in December. The best for leaf.
JC Williams. williamsii
Started in January but has met with a number of frosts. Now covered with flowers. I like the grace of singles.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Large variations of color on the shrub. Some were solid pink, some striated, some almost solid white.
Here was the first bloom from Dr King last year. Grown on from a wee twig.
I love that striped one, @SYinUSA! Another of the twigs I am trying to grow on is Bonomiana, which is similar to that. Perhaps this year, it might give me a flower?! 🙏
I don't grow them but am I correct in thinking that some keep their dead flowers whilst others drop them?
My JC Williams drops them early. After a cold night the ground underneath can be littered with near perfect blooms that can last for weeks. Part of the show. And there are still plenty left on the plant.
Here is a japonica whose name I have forgotten. Pink with a trace of paler pink/white picotee and quite small. I know it is not rare.
It is some 40 years with me and 3m high on twin stems. It has only flowered for any length of time last year. Normally any cold, not even freezing, and the buds fall off or rot on the plant. I have just noticed this flower, which I photoed quickly; I don't think it is mature yet. It is some 40 years with me and 3m high on twin stems. I keep it because it for its leaves, stature and for what it blocks out.
I'm not going to generalise, or tempt fate, but all my Camellias have escaped or resisted my raging honey fungus. And so has my beech hege.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Flowers on C Williamsii fall. Athough as you say this doesn't seem to be the case all the time.
If I was buying a Camellia I think I would check this out, personally I think they look much better when there are new buds opening and no browning flowers remaining....
The whole shrub, about 8-9' tall. Seems to drop spent flowers.