Six on Saturday – 10/2/2024

Categories six on saturday56 Comments on Six on Saturday – 10/2/2024

It stopped raining long enough today (Friday) to at least get out and grab a few pictures, but not long enough for the blooms in question to dry out. Nor was there enough sun to open crocuses. It won’t therefore come as any surprise that this weeks theme is Camellias, to the exclusion of all else except the header. They’re opening up all over the place and are likely to get repeated when each bush reaches its peak.
If your garden is waking up and bursting out all over, join us in sharing what’s looking good. Six on Saturday is the name of the game and here is the explanation of what to do.

One.
‘Annette Carol’. A flouncy Australian variety with C. pitardii in its parentage. Always puts on a fabulous show for us.

Two.
C. x williamsii ‘Charles Colbert’. The x williamsii varieties combine C. japonica and C. saluenensis. This was one of quite a few that E. G. Waterhouse raised in Australia from open pollinated seeds collected from C. saluenensis.

Three.
C. japonica ‘Bob’s Tinsie’. One of many great varieties raised by the sadly now defunct Nuccio’s Nurseries in California. My bush is about 1m high and rather weeping, there is one at Mt Edgcumbe that has been trained as a standard, with a 1m trunk and roundish head 2-3m in diameter. They’re nothing if not malleable.

Four.
C. reticulata ‘Mystique’. The ‘retics’ are the showiest of the Camellia family with big flowers, flouncy petals and sugary colours featuring large. The pure bred retics are also hard to propagate, so you won’t find them on sale very often. I’m currently trying to air layer this bush, with no success so far.

Five.
As with many groups of plants, the species are generally quieter and more refined than their cross bred cousins. This is Camellia grijsii, from China, with small, pure white flowers the scent of which carries right across the garden.

Six.
C. ‘Koto-no-kaori’, a C. japonica x C. lutchuensis hybrid which has the scent of the second parent. It has prodigious numbers of buds which open over two to three months but seem a little more easily damaged than those of ‘Minato-no-akebono’, which has a similar parentage and which I’ve mentioned previously. Probably just needs a bit more shelter than it’s got.

Camellias are not much troubled by slugs, unlike most of the lower growing plants that are trying to get going. I’ve resumed evening slug patrols and that is helping greatly. There’s a real sense that the new season is well under way, with lots of new growth, especially of weeds. There’s a long way to go before I can start to relax regarding frost though, so Begonia species with six inches of growth pushing through their winter blanket of leaves are a bit of a worry.
I also received a letter today from the International Camellia Society saying that Camellias are a favourite food source for the queens of Asian hornets that are emerging from hibernation. I’d better keep my butterfly net handy. We could really do without them getting established here. Why can’t they prey on slugs?

Published by Jim Stephens

Gardener, no-dig allotmenteer, camellia enthusiast. I love colour, it cheers me up. Retired nurseryman.

56 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 10/2/2024”

  1. thanks first of all for your newsletter which I always look forward to reading every Saturday morning. Could you recommend some Camelias that are most suitable to grow in pots snd can you prune tbem if they get too big.

    Many thanks

    Nicki

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    1. Camellias as a whole do quite well in pots provided their needs are met. In the longer term, smaller growers would be easier to look after, but may take a long time to make much of a show to begin with. I’m a fan of growing scented varieties in pots because you can move them into a conservatory to enjoy them more easily when they’re in flower. It largely comes down to what you like, what is available, and what conditions you intend growing it in. So, to mention a few names: ‘Fairy Blush’, ‘Night Rider’, transnokoensis, ‘Festival of Lights’, ‘Quintessence’, ‘Sweet Emily Kate’, ‘Yuletide’, ‘Sweet Jane’, ‘Paradise Little Liane’. If they get too big they can be pruned as much as necessary but it’s better to prune them a little after flowering to prevent them getting too big in the first place.

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      1. Thank you so much for your very speedy and informative response. It’s much appreciated. Non of the varieties that you mentioned are familiar to me but I will no doubt have fun trying to track them down and seeing if they’re available. I would assume that you have quite an extensive collection of Camellias and I really enjoy all your photos and comments.
        once again, many thanks.

        Kind regards

        Nicki

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  8. Jim, such gorgeous Camellias. What a collection! How many different varieties do you grow? Your C. ’Bob’s Tinsie’ is very similar to one in my post this week that I’m hoping you will recognize. My reference on Camellias doesn’t have it listed, and I’ve not gone back and dug through the old stack of plant tags. It is probably California bred, too. I really love your Chinese C. grijsii,something we never find in this area. I have two young Camellias in pots on the deck still- one of them a double with yellow flowers. If I had an extra acre I’d end up filling it with more Camellias. So I loved your eye-candy post this week. Thank you. 

    Here are my six for the week: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2024/02/10/six-on-saturday-2/

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    1. I have 25 planted in the garden and as many again in pots at various stages. How far is Camellia Forest Nursery from you, I think Camellia species are one of their things, in fact I think the C. parvilimba in my greenhouse was raised from their seed.

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      1. Jim, thank you for suggesting I look up Camellia Forest Nursery. I was born in that little community, long before the nursery was founded, however. It is within a day’s drive of where we are located. Now I’m going to explore their website! Thank you! I have a new crop of Camellia seeds germinating now. the hardest part for me is to get them from young seedlings with a few leaves to a size to plant out since I don’t have a greenhouse. It is hard to protect them from our critters for that long because the squirrels love to pull them out of their pots and the deer will nibble their leaves. I just notice the shrub I planted out recently has been grazed pretty thoroughly. But I have confidence that it will leaf out OK this spring, and I’ll spread repellents again once the rain is out of here. It is always a challenge to grow them large enough for the deer to ignore.

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    1. There have been vast numbers of Camellia varieties raised in America over the years. According to the ICS there have been 7282 produced in the US since 1940. China is leading the pack now but America has been the second biggest raiser of new varieties since 2000. https://camellia.iflora.cn/Cutivars/Year?code=United+States&start=1940&end=2025#Country
      Over here there are probably 2-3000 cultivars being grown but only a tiny fraction of that number are available in nurseries.

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      1. I have been in the landscape business for decades in the eastern US. I think the western US has a lot more varieties in camellias. I love to see your camellias. I was floored by what I saw in Japan. Hopefully, someone branches out and more of those beauties get into the market. Thanks for the info.

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  25. Your ccamellias are so beautiful, and the red one is so unusual. I haven’t seen one that form before. Are these early ones less easily damaged? I only have one white camellia which flowers later and always gets brown edges from the wind and rain.

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    1. Back in my nursery days we were the only Plant Finder entry for ‘Annette Carol’. Now there are none, though I gave cuttings to a Camellia grower a year ago in hopes of getting it back in commerce. It’s depressing how small a range is generally available and how that range never changes. There are 23 listings for ‘Adolphe Audusson’, 30 for ‘Debbie’, 23 for ‘Donation’.

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  35. WHAT?! I had no idea that Nuccio’s is now defunct! They provided almost all of the stock Camellia in the late 1990s, including the old fashioned ‘Purity’! Some of the older Camellia in the landscapes here likely came from there, or from the farm that grew them from stock Camellia that came from there. Goodness, I was near there last year. I should have stopped by.

    Goodness, that just blew anything that I was about to say. These are my Six on Saturday.

    https://tonytomeo.com/2024/02/10/six-on-saturday-palm-springs/

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