I’m not a great Camellia fan. I find their dark evergreen foliage can be relentlessly gloomy, especially in our winter months. But when you’re greeted in a garden by these playful blooms, you can’t help but feel uplifted. I’m strangely enchanted by their offbeat flappy petals and their in-your-face winter colour. And when the sun does shine, they have a gentle, slightly cloying (heading towards mothballs) scent, which is no doubt great for early pollinators.
A week later, and these brilliant blooms haven’t survived the snow,
but new buds have toughed it out, and are ready to put on a show once more. And despite myself, I’m finding it difficult not to love ’em.
Here’s a great article by Noel Kingsbury on how and where to grow Camellia sasanqua, with a helpful list of Camellia nurseries too.
Out of my shed 
I know what you mean about camellias. They’re a bit uninteresting when they’re not in flower, but frankly I’ll forgive anything that’s in flower now!
Hi Veronica, you're right of course. Anything supplying this amazing colour in the garden at the moment has to be welcomed with opened arms.Camellias an all-time favourite of mine. Shortlived, but so fab when out that it seems worth the wait. Quite like those glossy green leaves too.
Hi Nicolette, camellias do indeed have splendid blooms, but I still struggle to appreciate their foreboding foliage. I guess with some plants it’s love at first sight whilst others slowly grow on you….
Anything that blooms in winter gets double points in my book. “Playful” is a good description for this cultivar. These flowers do make you smile, don’t they? I have a number of C. japonicas in my South Carolina garden; while some begin blooming in December others don’t start to open until February…always a great show between the cold spells.
Hi Marian, What’s the weather like in South Carolina at the moment? Last week we still had snow, but today it’s rainy and mild. What a difference a week makes. Amazing that plants cope at all! Interested what plants grow around your camellias and what size your garden is too to accomodate these plants.
I agree, anything that flowers in winter gets a thumbs up from me too! Especially when they bounce back with new buds after the snow 🙂
Hi Anna, I was especially impressed that the buds survived the snow and now the plant is happily continuing to flower. A good value winter plant. Now reassessing my dislike of Camellias!
I have always resisted them here ( the leaves depress me) but then I glimpse them in other places and think I should get over myself. But I love these and especially love your description.
Thanks Sue! This plant is in a client’s garden and I’m still finding it hard to visualise where I would grow such a ‘heavy’ plant in my own garden. However, these are great winter blooms-would look good next to a daphne-so might have a go at taking a cutting of this cultivar later in the year and possibly growing in a pot (of Ericaceous compost), although this plant seems to be happy growing in London clay soil.
We saw some very lovely white flowered ones in Windsor Park and I was tempted but then they are a bit like magnolias. You wait all that time for flowers only for them to be decimated by the weather. Still when the weather is so grim a shot of colour from anywhere is special.
Hi WW, You’re right. Another week later and there’s hardly a bloom to be seen. Now you see ’em, ……… Mind you, there’s nothing else in the garden at the moment that has such an amazing visual impact, although I keep on stopping in my tracks each time I get a waft of a sarcococca on my travels. Lovely to have all senses satisfied!
I am a fan of “some” camellia, preferring the more gentle flowers rather than those that have been excessively hybridised .
Hi Claire, as you can see, I’m no Camellia expert, but would love to know which varieties you like the look of.V.best Naomi
[…] say arguably, as I noticed a couple of other contenders in the garden today. This showy Camellia sasanqua was still looking spiffingly jolly and uplifting in the […]