We popped out to a garden centre and a nursery yesterday just for a mooch around. Came away with a tree stake and one Cyclamen between them. Neither seemed to have much stock. Since both produce a lot of their own plants I thought the end of the growing season would be a good time to visit. Maybe the lockdown earlier in the year stymied their production plans. Not that I need more plants. Here’s a few I bought earlier.
One.
Camellia ‘Yume’. What do you care that this is a hybrid between C. yuhsienensis and C. hiemalis ‘Shishigashira’? C. yuhsienensis is one of the most fragrant camellias; C. hiemalis is a sasanqua type which you’d expect to have something of an oily smell, usually not much. ‘Yume’ is strongly fragrant, but I can’t really detect the sweet perfume of the C. yuhsienensis parent. It’s a modern Japanese hybrid. Since hiemalis is autumn flowering and yuhsienensis spring flowering, I’m hoping for a really long flowering season. The bloom is 5-6cm wide.
Two.
I just got four new Camellias, two of them are flowering now. Here’s the other one, Camellia ‘Cinnamon Scentsation’. This was raised by Dr William Ackerman, a retired geneticist from the U.S. National Arboretum. He raised a very pretty double flowered variety called ‘Cinnamon Cindy’ as part of an effort to get a wider range of species involved in the world of Camellia hybrids. It then produced a mutation with slightly larger single flowers and a stronger scent, which he propagated and named ‘Cinnamon Scentsation’. It’s flowering now but I think because it’s been tunnel grown. I would expect it to be spring flowering grown outside. This has a good, sweet perfume. The bloom is 6-7cm wide.
Three.
Begonia ‘Mishmi Silver’. I bought a trio of new Begonias at the Tregrehan Rare Plant sale in September and have ket them in pots since then. This one is now flowering to book its place on a saturday six. This is another recently collected form from Arunachal Pradesh in NE India. It’s likely to be on the cusp of hardy, so I won’t be leaving it in the ground over winter until I have a few backup plants growing, but I will plant it out for the summer next year.
Four.
Begonia ‘Torsa’ earns its place in a six by producing bulbils that are just as crazily massive as the plant itself. I shall push these into the surface of a pot of compost then just about cover them with grit. I’ll keep them cool and moist through the winter and hopefully they’ll all grow away in spring. Leaves 19 x 14 inches are claimed on one website.
Five.
Herman the Head. In recent years Herman has had fly-away hair in the shape of Carex comans ‘Frosted Curls’. This year we thought we’d go for a new look. Kind of tight curls. Need to take it in for winter, he’s going to back to looking like Hannibal Lecter’s been at him. Echeveria something.
Six.
Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’. A year ago I had this in a pot and needing a home, having reclaimed it from our deceased neighbour. I blamed the polytunnel for being in the way of where I wanted it to go. Seems I changed my mind and planted it elsewhere, which has clearly suited it. The polytunnel’s now gone but I’m not planning to move it. Plant of the year 2013, I must have bought it soon after and no doubt payed through the nose. Seven years on it’s beginning to give something back.
Doesn’t look like much outdoor gardening’s going to get done this weekend. No matter, I have Camellia conundrums aplenty to apply myself to, starting with ‘Fukuzutsumi’. I need to get those ‘Torsa’ bulbils in too. It’s nice to get out in the garden, there a lots of hangers on out there, braving the weather, but if I don’t, I’m not missing a great deal. I’d have put the feature picture Geranium in if I could have found its name. G. wlassovianum of some sort perhaps, maybe.
The Prop’s post came early this morning, he was dashing off to collect something. I’m hoping someone is going to come to take some surplus walling stone away but it’s blowing a hoolie and blowing horizontal rain so who knows.
garden ruminations 
Herman looks like a neighbor of SpongeBob Squarepants.
Those bulbils are weird. They look like the modified stems that they are.
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They’re a propagator’s dream, especially for an in vogue plant like Begonia Torsa.
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Oh yes, like the bulbils of Furcraeas. They are baby plants ready to go.
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Furcraea would be scary if it were just a bit hardier. It only grows away from the bulbils in the far west of Cornwall but so many bulbils!
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Yes! I got mine from a specimen in abandoned landscape. No one removed the big bloom, which resembled a sagging Christmas tree. It fell over later, and a massive herd of babies grew where it landed.
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Herman the head is just perfect – love it! Are you doing leaf cuttings of the begonia mishmi silver? I have one that looks very similar growing as a house plant. I never thought to put it outside for the summer but I will try next year maybe.
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I’ve not got the measure of leaf cuttings yet, so no. I’m assuming it’s a growing season technique so I’ll have a go next year. It does look more like a new hybrid from Dibley’s than something found in the wild. Perhaps Michael Wickenden was the victim or perpetrator of a hoax.
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Camellia ‘Yume’ is yummy! (Sorry!) such a lovely delicate colour. Do you keep a lot of your camellias inside then? I would have thought the wind and rain would wreak havoc with the flowers. And Herman is fab. The echeveria is perfect.
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Normally the only Camellias I keep in side are small ones, 1 litre pots or less. I brought those two in to get decent blooms to take pictures and to enjoy flowers and scent without going out in the rain. I’m getting nesh in my old age.
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You and me both! At this rate I’ll never get my tulips planted unless I bring the pots and compost into the conservatory!
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I always enjoy your camellias. I had no idea you could get scented ones. I love the head with the perm.
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Scent and Camellias, Camellias in pots; I feel a couple of blog posts coming on.
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The camelias are so pretty, but there is nothing as pretty as Herman’s curls.
The mahonia was plant of the year 2013? – time is certainly flying by.
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2013 seems a lifetime ago, I was still working then; I barely remember it.
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You have some really unusual (and beautiful) varieties of camellias. I love the flower of Camellia ‘Yume’ – I hope it does gives the long flowering season you’re looking forward to.
Herman’s curly hairstyle is a treat, and the Mahonia is looking great – that’s another I can’t grow.
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Love that pot with the different hairdos. I shall follow your example now and get those little begonia bulbils growing. The Mahonia is looking as if it has enjoyed the summer. Dreadfully wet and windy weather ahead, but you’ll find plenty to keep you out of trouble I am sure!
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Wet and windy here right now, the only trouble I’m going to get into is boredom or RSI.
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It must be getting difficult for you to find new camellias – I thought you had them all! I do like Herman’s hairstyle. Make sure his hairdresser is more careful than mine. I can’t see what he is doing when I don’t have my glasses on and he took far too much off! Never mind, it’ll grow. Interesting Six-on-Saturday.
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Finding new camellias is not the problem, though there are very few nurseries that carry a big range. The National Collection at Mt Edgcumbe just added a good number having been offered some money and I arranged the purchase of 45 varieties they didn’t have from Stervinou in France. I only had one of the 45. I added an extra plant of four varieties to their order. The real problem is not to find yourself, a couple of years down the line, wishing you hadn’t bought something because something lovelier comes along and you don’t have room for it. I keep digging plants out and giving them away to make room for new ones. We’re waiting on friends to move so they can have a couple in their new garden and make me room in ours.
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Herman has so much character!!
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Herman has never seemed to be out of place, ours is not a nymphs or gnomes type of garden.
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I never thought about what type of tiny garden we have. It must be a wind-spinner one.
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Herman’s new hair do is very fetching. It’s a pity the fragrance of Camellia ‘Yume’ can’t be shared online – the flower is a beauty though.
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It’s a shame Herman is going to spend his winter both hairless and top of head-less. Perhaps I could find him a hat.
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I remember Herman and his new haircut is just as nice ! 😂
Very pretty leaves of the Begonia ‘Mishmi Silver’
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‘Mishmi Silver’ is an extraordinary thing to have been found growing in the wild. It looks like the product of a protracted breeding program. I suppose in a sense it is.
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Lovely Six, Jim. Those camellias are wonderful, without having the benefit of the scent. Loving the begonia, what a beauty. Wild and woolly out there at the moment!
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I’ve been told this morning to keep dipping in to the scent of ‘Yume’ because it changes. I need a better nose. Wild and woolly here too.
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My sense of scent is dreadful, but I keep trying!
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Those Camelias are both beautiful shades of pink. I was fascinated with the tiny bulbils produced by Begonia ‘Torsa’. I had no idea that a Begonia did that. Hopefully the little bulbils will survive winter and grow well in spring. The new hairdo for Herman is very effective!
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There are just a couple of Begonia species that do that, as far as I know. Herman is due to go bald for winter, when the weather turns colder.
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A beautiful selection of camellias and so early in the year. I have never seen these bulbils on begonias – though I have only one begonia in the garden – they are a wonderful and easy way to propagate. We grow the mahonia here and love it, a small and tidy plant and easier to have near the house than the larger relatives.
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Begonia grandis and B. sutherlandii are the only species I know that produce bulbils; ‘Torsa’ being a grandis hybrid. As you say, it makes propagating them a breeze.
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Sounds a great idea.
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I love Herman the head, reminds me of the Easter Island heads. What fun it must be to change his hairstyle each year! That’s a very pretty Begonia, and your Camellia photographs…I thought I wasn’t fond of them, but I may need to review that opinion.
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One of our pot suppliers back in nursery days got hold of the heads. They were meant to look like Easter Island heads. It’s open both ends, a cylinder, so we could grow something in it, the Echeveria is in a tight fitting plastic pot. Camellias are a very diverse group and it seems to me that the zeitgeist is with the smaller flowered, smaller leaved, more natural looking varieties and species. There are plenty of them, they’re just not well known or widely available.
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