Oh my! I just witnessed a seismic geopolitical moment and I have to calm down and write a blog about things happening in my garden. By any real world standard, absolutely nothing is happening in my garden.
OK, I’m going to compartmentalise my brain and focus on the task in hand, which is to post about six things happening in my garden this Saturday. This is what the Six on Saturday meme is about, more details are here if you need them.
I’m going for six Camellias this week since there are more than enough and it seems to be something I’ve done before around this time. Actually, it was a 10th February post last year, with several of the same varieties, so they’re running late.
One.
Camellia reticulata ‘Mystique’ is a variety that I bought a batch of from New Zealand in my nursery days. It is supposedly a pure reticulata rather than a hybrid and consequently it is no surprise that it is very reluctant to grow from cuttings. For the first few years of its life, as a physiologically young clone, it would root from cuttings, if reluctantly; but now it would need to be grafted or layered, with even layering being slow and uncertain.
Two.
Camellia japonica ‘Bob’s Tinsie’. This has “anemone form” flowers, meaning it has a single row of petals then a central mass of petaloids; stamens that have partially turned into small petals. The variety C. japonica ‘Anemoniflora’ was brought to the UK from China in 1806 and is not so very different from this variety, so it is far from being a modern concept even if it is a comparatively recent variety, registered in 1962 by Nuccio’s Nursery.
Three.
Camellia ‘Adorable’ doesn’t get a specific epithet because it’s a hybrid. It was raised from a seed of the species C. pitardii, with the pollen parent being unknown. It first flowered in 1977 and was registered in 1979. I thought it was going to remain more compact than it has, so at some point I will have to prune it back from the path and down from the apple tree, then some more to get some semblance of normal shape back. It’s a pretty strident pink, probably not to everyone’s taste, and I love it.
Four.
Camellia ‘Annette Carol’ has no specific epithet for the same reason; it is a hybrid. In fact it was raised by the same person who raised ‘Adorable’ and has the same seed parent. E.R. Sebire, of Wandin North, Victoria, Australia, did well with those two seeds. You have to wonder if they were early efforts and he got lucky or were picked from hundreds of seedlings after many years of trying. If I’d got those two I’d want to grow on every seed the parent plant ever produced and to keep pollinating it with pollen from the widest possible range of varieties too.
Five.
Camellia ‘Quintessence’ was what they call a planned cross. C. japonica Fendig’s seedling No. 12 hand crossed with C. lutchuensis. The small single flowers have good perfume and the plant is pretty much prostrate so far.
Six.
Camellia x williamsii ‘Charles Colbert’. This was a chance seedling of C. saluenensis raised by E.G. Waterhouse in Australia and registered in 1959, so still younger than me. I just looked it up on the International Camellia Society’s website and one of the pictures on there is one of mine. I’d forgotten I’d put it up. All the flowers that are open on it at the moment are high up, hence the angle.
Three Aussies, two Kiwis and one American. It seems a little sad that with 25 Camellias in the garden I don’t have a single UK raised variety. The UK’s camellia breeding efforts did get rather eclipsed by other countries with better climates but there are some very good UK cultivars around.
Just one last thing.
garden ruminations 
Your camellias are lovely Jim. Thank you for sharing their beauty and for continuing to host this wonderful connection amongst gardeners from around the world. The events taking place in my country are indeed very upsetting. I’m with the half of the population here in the US that did not vote for this person who behaves like a psychopath. I’m very worried where this is headed. Please protect yourselves. I haven’t been able to compartmentalize, especially after yesterday, and I’ve been too low to post anything lately. The garden, and loved ones, meditation, and real connections like these keep me going. In support, 🇺🇦
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What astonishing camellias, Jim – hard to believe you can fit 25 of them in your garden! I love the look of these multi-petalled ones but I am not aspiring to anything else beyond my most recent purchase (I have emailed you). My early spring six are at https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-all-change/ Thank you for hosting. I checked out the streptocarpus videos, by the way – thanks 👍
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I think we are all equally horrified. I had to stop watching. But on a brighter note what a joy to see some of your fabulous camellias
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My husband made me stop watching. He said “It is not going to end well. You know that and you don’t need to traumatize yourself.” Too late. It is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life. I am still employed, for now. Wasn’t going to post at all today, but had a pleasant surprise amidst the sorrow and hopelessness.
https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2025/03/01/march-1-2025-six-on-saturday/
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Forgot to say, I loved the delicate pinks and also the way the anemone really looks quite a bit like a sea anemone.
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What a beautiful Post, Jim- I loved the perfect Camellia photos, the sentiment, and especially your ‘One last thing.’ We must have watched the same debacle yesterday and I’m also having trouble compartmentalizing- perhaps not so successfully, either. No Camellias for me this week, but lots of Hellebores and bulbs! https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-a-time-for-change/
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Thanks for that last bit. I agree with March Picker on both counts, Camellias and disgust. Embarrassed along with a lot of others. The Camellias are fantastic. Thank you for hosting. https://theshrubqueen.com/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-spring-promise-2/
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Beautiful six camellias, Jim. Absolutely disgusted by my own country and doing what I can to resist here. Seeking distraction, I wrote my six —https://gardensatcoppertop.com/2025/03/01/march-1/
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Thank you for hosting, Jim. I am offering up my very first contribution today and pulling it together was a nice distraction from the horror that is my country right now. Your Camellias are simply gorgeous! I cannot wait for the color to return to our land. Hope you’re enjoying a calm weekend!
https://undertheelderberrytree.com/six-on-saturday-one-absolute-trust/
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I was intrigued by your “anemone form” camellia. I finally remembered the variety ‘Yuletide’ that has the same bright red petals as ‘Bob’s Tinsie’. Thanks for the beautiful photos of your camellia gallery.
Here is my six. I am still into daffodils.
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So much is awry. Thankful for your camellia rundown. My six (for the first time in months) https://aftereden.blog/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-1-march-2025/
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I think most of us are in shock at what we witnessed last night, I really don’t know how Zelensky kept so relatively calm with those two bully boys shouting him down. I’m afraid I would have walked out of the room! I only hope the European leaders, and ours, stay firm in their backing of Ukraine.
Anyway to the camellias, they are fabulous, I don’t think I have come across an anemone form before, it is a delight as is the colour of Camellia ‘Annette Carol’. Thinking about your open garden for the NGS this month would be a good one for people to see some of your magnificent camellias.
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You had fabulous photographs, despite having nothing happening in your garden at this time of the year.
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a simply beautiful post, Jim… and very welcome burst of colour!
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What a pretty collection of camellias you presented us again this morning. I do like the Camellia japonica ‘Bob’s Tinsie’ with an anemone shape. Indeed, this little enchanted break from the plants and flowers of our gardens will calm us down given this international political crisis that stunned us all last night: I wonder where we are going… https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-01-03-25/
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I too can’t believe the behaviour of some people, frightening really. Your camelias are beautiful, and enjoying reading your descriptions. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2025/03/six-on-saturday-1-march-2025.html
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I’m late this morning – I slept poorly last night after witnessing those events from DC. If I’d witnessed strangers in the street doing the same I’d be shocked, but from the White House was another thing entirely. Your show of support with the colours at the end is appreciated.
Your Camellias are, as ever, fabulous. If I had to buy just one, it would be ‘Mystique’. No, perhaps ‘Bob’s Tinsie’. Here’s mine:
https://notesfrommygarden.co.uk/2025/03/01/welcome-spring-of-2025/
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How lovely to have so much colour. I wish I had room for more shrubs, but at least I have room for a few. ‘Annette Carol’ so nearly won but ‘Charles’ pipped her at the post. Beautiful.
https://thequiltinggardener.wordpress.com/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-01-03-2025/
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A beautiful display, I would imagine very uplifting at this time of year. I have grown a few camellias, forms of C. japonica, but unfortunately the flowers have suffered frost damage most years. The one that I have had the most success with, and I rather like, is ‘Mark Alan” which thrived for many years, the only problem it suffered was an attack of cushion scale and its attendant sooty mould.
I have finally managed to scrape together a “six” which can be found at : https://ricksplantworld.blog/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-29-02-2025/
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Feeling just the same here, Jim, incredible and not in a good way. Your camellias are wonderful. Here are mine https://offtheedgegardening.com/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-pinch-punch/
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Camellia reticulata are rad, but not fun to grow. I grafted many onto Camellia japonica, but they did not do well for us. In the long run, it did not matter much, since there is not much market for them here. We could not sell the few that we got! Camellia japonicas are the standard sort here, with only a few basic Camellia sasanqua. I think that I would like to grow another Camellia reticulata in my own garden eventually, but not for production purposes.
These are my six.
https://tonytomeo.com/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-blue/
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How did reticulata hybrids fare, things like Miss Tulare and DR Clifford Parks? They don’t need to be grafted and are just as showy as the pure reticulatas.
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Coincidentally, we ‘sold’ both of those cultivars. I mean that we brought them as #5 from Nuccio’s, and grew and sold them as #15. So, we did not do much more than grow them from one size to the next. Although I do not remember much about them, I remember that, since they were already growing, they performed well. Doctor Clifford Parks, with a bit of culling developed good form and held its bloom well. I was not so keen on Miss Tulare, but only because of its pinkish red floral color that was sort of between pink and red. Its bloom sagged somewhat, but probably because we did not cull it. Regardless, they were not so marketable.
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Quite. I don’t often shout at the telly but yesterday evening I found myself doing it a lot and the BBC’s Sarah Smith annoyed me no end – I think she must have been watching something else entirely. Anyway, a beautiful selection of Camellias – some of them look just like Roses https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2025/03/01/six-on-saturday-1-march-2025/
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That lady more than annoyed 50% of the population in Scotland before the BBC sent her to report from the US. I, thankfully, didn’t see her last night.
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