Oodles of camellias

Camellia
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

My friend Dave knows that I dig gardening and sent me a text message to let me know that his camellia bushes were in bloom and suggested that I stop by to see them.

I stopped in after work today and was blown away. Dave must have close to 150 different camellia bushes tucked into his yard!

They were all there when he bought the house in the early 1990s. Apparently the house used to belong to Bill and Birdie Carroll (sp?). Dave says that Bill was a horticulture professor at UF, which explains all of the camellias.

At any rate, the place was just amazing. Dave let me take several blooms home, and I took a few photos of other ones around the yard.

Here are some close-up shots of the ones I took home, moving clockwise around the photo above. I don't know the cultivar names for any of them (sorry). You can click on each photo to see it bigger.

This one was cool because the variegation was so smooth--like when you work wet-on-wet with watercolors.



This one was jam-packed full of petals. At first I thought it was a cluster of several flowers, but it really is just one flower.



I think this one was my absolute favorite. It reminded me of a candy cane.



Here's another beautiful variegated variety.



And here's a deeper pink variegated variety.



I also took some photos while we were walking around his yard, though they're not that great. I took them with my phone and the light was fading, neither of which makes for great photos.

Here's another candy cane one.



And look at this one! It had red stamens! I've never seen anything like this before on a camellia.



I couldn't get over how uniformly the petals aligned on this one.



And here's one last vignette. Dave floats the blooms that fall to the ground in his birdbath, changing out the colors and styles of blooms as he sees fit.

February--Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

(Apologies for the weird highlighted words. I accidentally deleted this post and had to recreate it from a cached Google version.)

February--Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

As part of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, here's a run-down of what's blooming in my garden right now. We've had a few hard freezes since my January post, so there isn't as much blooming now.

Initiated by May Dreams Gardens, countless bloggers now participate in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. They simply create a post on their blog to showcase what's blooming in their gardens and then link it to the current GBBD post at May Dreams Gardens. No rules. No requirements. Just good garden fun.

Camellia

(click photo for larger image)

My two camellia bushes are in the back corner of the yard so I have to remind myself to go check for blooms when the weather starts getting springlike. I headed out recently and lo and behold, the white camellia had started blooming. I brought a few blooms into the house so I could better enjoy them.

'Louis Phillippe' Rose

(click photo for larger image)

My 'Louis Philippe' rose is still blooming its heart out, despite the recent freezes. You gotta love a tough yet beautiful old garden rose like this. 

Azalea

(click photo for larger image)

You may remember that my azaleas started blooming last month. The existing blooms got a bit burned byt he recent freezes. However, new blooms have opened and the plant is looking pretty good. 

Well, that's all that's blooming in my yard for now. The redbud trees are starting to pop around town, but I don't have one in my yard. Yet. I've been coveting the 'Forest Pansy' and 'Hearts of Gold' cultivars. I think I'll add one of these two within the next several years since I'm so ga-ga for them.

Other plants blooming around town include dogwood and Walter's viburnum. You can see photos of Walter's viburnum on Tom's latest blog post. 

Safe garden voyeurism

Gardeners like to enjoy their own gardens, but they also love a chance to peek at what their neighbors are doing. Occasionally, this lands a gardener in a sticky situation. At the recent Garden Writers Association conference, I learned of a safe way to get glimpse what's blooming in other garden bloggers' yards through Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (thanks, Dee).

Initiated by May Dreams Gardens, countless bloggers now participate in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. They simply create a post on their blog to showcase what's blooming in their gardens and then post in the comment box of the GBBD post at May Dreams Gardens. No rules. No requirements. Just good garden fun.

So here's my first go, albeit a day late.

I'm happy to announce that the crinum in the backyard is blooming. You may remember that this is the one that was affected by spider mites. You can still see a bit of the damaged foliage in the picture. The mites have reappeared, but I treated promptly so all seems fine.

Crinum procerum var. splendens 'Queen Emma'

The Camellia sasanqua by my carport also popped open its first two blooms of the season. It always surprises me. Most of the year it's a stately evergreen shrub and them boom! Once fall arrives it's covered in pink blossoms.

Camellia sasanqua (unknown variety)

The Phillippine violet is also in bloom. This one was given to me by Dr. Bob, one of the other Master Gardeners who trained with me last fall. Thanks, Bob! It really is a great plant.

Barleria cristata

The clerodendrum at the front of the carport has been blooming all summer and continues to do so. Here's an interesting point about this plant. I had heard that it could be overly aggressive, though I'd never had any problems with it. No problems, that is, until I dug around in that bed to remove the invasive sword fern that was growing there and to add a few crinum bulbs I bought at Home Depot. Now the clerodendrum is putting up shoots as if its life depended on it!

Clerodendrum thomsoniae

And finally, the pinecone ginger flower stalks have turned a fabulous red. I cut a few of them so that I could enjoy them in the house.

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