Wednesday 30 April 2008

Camellias

Who knows why I love Camellias so much?

Marjorie Waldegrave

The form, colours and names thrill me.

Matterhorn

Maybe it is because I grew up in Cornwall
and spent spring days exploring Caerhays Castle.

Anticipation

I can remember watching Greta Garbo in Camille;
was that the beginning?

Adolphe Audusson

These flowers are all from my garden
and the photographs were taken between December and April.

Contessa Lavinia Maggi

Some are grown in pots and others are large bushes.

Joan Trehane

A spectacular large white is missing
because it was caught by the late frosts.

Matterhorn

Otherwise, this is my complete collection,
and I lay it before you.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I live between the tropic of capricorn and the equator in a place with low rainfall for most of the year, then three months of flooding rain. All of our soil is clay.

Your beautiful photos are my complete collection too!

carolyn said...

They are all lovely, sadly we have the wrong soil ph for these beauties and I'm afraid I'm not very good at looking after pots.

Mary said...

Camellias - fortunately for me - grow well here. However I am lusting over matterhorn - so, so lovely.

I am also ridiculously pleased that you grew up in Cornwall. As you know I love books by Elizabeth Goudge and Howard Spring and though this is almost certainly erroneous I feel as though all their books were set in Cornwall!

blackbird said...

...and it is gorgeous.
Can you imagine if I posted my patches of dirt?
We have NO sun.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful blooms.

The names are wonderful, too.

RW said...

Oh. These are quite lovely. We have two camellia bushes that were trapped by the side of our house and never bloomed. Ever. So we moved them and they seem a bit traumatized... and still no blooms. So, I take great delight in seeing yours. The Matterhorn is my favourite.

Allison said...

Stunning~I love the Contessa.

carrie said...

Beautiful! We had a camellia bush at our old house (the one I grew up in) and I drive by it all the time and admire those bright fuschia flowers - they are so lovely!

Thanks Alice!

dottycookie said...

I am ashamed to say I have no camellias, and they have always frightened me a bit. They are extraordinarily beautiful but the books seem to suggest they are fussy. I'm not good with fussy plants. Do they like being in pots? We have no acid soil to be found ... And are they iffy about winter weather? There's precious little shelter they could have ...

Ali Honey said...

Lovely photos. I have lots of camellias that are hardy and easy where I live , but I still love seeing yours.I have a couple that are smaller species and have perfume - which makes them even more lovely. Enjoy your beauties - thanks for sharing.

Ginnie said...

Oh, so gorgeous! We are too far north for them to grow here. I'm amazed that they flower over the winter. And like bluemountainsmary, I also love that you grew up in Cornwall - because I love Rosamund Pilcher's books (I'm just re-reading Coming Home) and the descriptions of Cornwall.