14 Replies to “TimesSquare: Camellia Time”

  2. I never realised there were so many winter flowering camellias until recently. Just spent an hour in a garden in Penzance where there are several bushes in flower. None a delicately pretty as your last one though. Any idea of the name?

    1. It’s in a garden and isn’t labelled. I tried to look it up but without success. If you see a magnificent rose bush from afar, covered in flowers after October 1st or so, the chances are it’s a camellia.

  4. What a lift this morning! That bright pink at the top took me completely by surprise. How beautiful! All three are, but that last one is especially so (to me) because of the leaves around that color that almost isn’t there. Thank you!

  5. We started growing camellias back in the mid 1990s. Japonicas were the most common. Sasanquas were the the second most common. We grew reticulatas as well, but they were not very popular. More are grown there now, but sadly, I am not growing them for now.

    1. It’s funny to me how they seem to drop their flowers as a whole rather than petal by petal as roses do, so that underneath the tree can sometimes be prettier than the top – unless of course they turned into a brownish mush before they fell! I looked up C. reticulata as I’m not familiar with it. Their size may have limited their garden appeal but I’d love to see an 11 inch flower!

      1. They are big, but . . . . perhaps not as pretty as Camellia japonica. They are like big floppy tropical flowers, although not tropical. Those who like them REALLY take them seriously, but they are the minority. What I did like about them is that they bloomed so well for us in the nursery (although that meant there was more mess to clean up). The mass produced Camellia japonicas were grown and sold before they got a chance to bloom. The babies might bloom with a few blossoms, but the maturing specimens were supposed to bloom in the retail nurseries or landscapes that they went to. In other words, they were gone before they put on their show. However, because Camellia reticulatas were with us for a few years, they bloomed all they wanted. They stood up like trees and made quite a colorful mess. There were not many, and they were not my favorite, but they were fun.

  6. Pingback: We’re into penalty time | The life of B

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