That's a real nice one!
Why don't you ever give us a name at first when you post?
I want it, if it will grow here.
I need a name!
Mike

yes, it really is the most beautiful one I have ever seen!

This style of Camellia japonica is called Formal Double. Some cultivars producing this type of flower are stocked by independent garden centers here, however not all may be able to open the flowers well under outdoor conditions in the North. And camellia petal blight is present in this area.

Except for certain popular cultivars seen to be successful in local plantings camellias might generally be best viewed as conservatory or cold greenhouse specimens here - notice that independent retailers tend to display them under cover when they are in flower.

I've avoided japonicas because of the Camellia petal blight here.
Thanks for explaining it bboy.
Mike

They look great when the flowers are first opening but here, at least, the winter rains really do a number on them and the soggy, spent flowers, which hang on to the bushes for aeons, are really unattractive. Even the spring bloomers generally get hit with the rain. I tend to plant species Camellias such as C. likiangensis or those with small single flowers that don't end up with big brown blobs on them. The sasanquas fare a bit better. Also I find many of the japonicas to be rather hulking shrubs. Every now and again I come across a mature specimen that has been attractively pruned but it is a rarity.

Sara

Camellias in general are woodland shrubs in nature, with most of them native to southern China etc. Where you see big collections of them here in western North America is under trees in coastal southern California, as at Descanso Gardens and Huntington Botanical Garden. Probably the most important commercial source (apart from wholesale growers that supply retail garden centers with a much more limited selection) continues to be the long-established Nuccio's Nurseries on the eastern edge of the Los Angeles basin, where the nearby mountains looked surprisingly (and appropriately) east Asian (steep, cloudy and green) on the damp winter day we were there.

Down on the valley floor they had a lot of their stock under shade cloth.

We were there for their significant offering of species camellias, including multiple kinds I now have planted outdoors here.

Persisting dead flowers is a feature of C. japonica, but it is also more hardy than most, with a particular type even growing wild in cold mountainous parts of Japan.

The quantity of fallen, browning petals that C. japonica cultivars can generate after bloom is amazing - perhaps the biggest such mess I know of being present in this area.

This post was edited by bboy on Sat, Nov 23, 13 at 14:46

Posted by formandfoliage 9b (Sunset zone 15) (My Page) on Sat, Nov 23, 13 at 11:55

Hmm, how about Tea Camellia. There is a Chinese documentary series about Tea. There is an episode devoted to the British tea and British tea culture.

http://youtu.be/UlYRZRew7TY

If you are familiar with London, Yorkshire, etc, you will find the story understandable. It first talk about the tea boat :) Then, at 8 minutes, a sophisticated tea teacher gives classes to a student, talking about the afternoon tea culture and the British aristocratic way of life. The successful creation of blended tea for the Golden Jubilee of 2013 ...

Yup a species camelliaâ¦

Hmm, this one:

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