It’s been a weird old winter. Not only have we been months in lockdown, experienced four days of power outage, witnessed severe storms that felled hundreds of large trees in the forest and last Wednesday morning a 5.8 earthquake!
Thankfully, there was no damage but we had such a fright. My heart goes out to all people and animals who have experienced mother nature’s anger. Maybe she’s trying to tell us all something. Stay well and be safe.
Today was cloudy and threatening to rain all day. It’s still quite cold up here on the mountain but that hasn’t stopped these crimson camellias from blooming profusely. I gather armfuls this morning ready for my vases.
Hope you’ve all had a peaceful weekend.
My constant companion, blends in with the furniture. Hope you’ve all had a productive weekend in the garden.
September has come and gone and I realise my camellia identification has paused. This is mainly due to the vast amount of information and images available and the fact that it is quite confusing. Just when I think I have identified a particular flower I view another even closer to my own.
Therefore, I thought I’d wait until such time as I can visit a camellia show in person. In the meantime, here is a selection of our much loved and admired blooms.
By the way, most of these have been flowering since August.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing this array of camellias. We have lived here on the mountain coming up to seventeen years in November and I am constantly grateful to the previous owner who had such vision to plant camellias. They are scattered in all areas of the garden and once established do not need much attention – pick and enjoy.
Keep gardening and stay well. You can follow me on Instagram @crabandfish_garden, too.
I am continuing my journey of trying to classify and indentifying the array of camellias on our property.
A quick back story: we did not plant out this garden, it was established when we bought it. I met the lady who planted all the trees. The garden was devastated in the 1983 bushfires. More on this in another post.
So, here goes – the white edit …
A pure white camellia with, what I call, filigree petals.
These are in the green vase and are pure white with tender pink flecks on the edges of each petal.
This is a particularly robust and sturdy tree, about 30ft in height. The flowers are small compared to the other camellias. Dark pink edges and last well in a vase.
Lastly, one of my favourites and an Australian cultivar – Brushfields yellow.
Happy gardening and take time in the garden. Follow me on Instagram too – crabandfish_garden for more gardening adventures.
Take care and find solace in the garden.
I’ve been investigating the identity of some of the pink camellias blooming in our garden now. I collected some for the table.
I began by looking at this popular encyclopaedia which was on my bookshelf. However, I had greater success with the website http://www.camelliasaustralia.com.au – so here goes…
A beautiful mid pink rose-like flowers – Ellie’s Girl.
Pale pink large double flowers- Mrs DW Descanso. These have been flowering since June!
Rosy salmon blooms – Harriet Beecher Sheather.
Of course, it’s a challenge identifying a bloom from a page or a website. Would love to attend a camellia conference – one day!
Enjoy your season. Next week: the white edit 😊💐🌺🌷
I grant you it may be a misleading title, however, I have been wanting to start this project for the last fifteen years!!!! Time flies…. But here we are in isolation, so there is no better time than to go around the garden and try to identify and/or record each species of flowering camellias. So, today I start with these which, as it happens, are basking in rare sunshine, here on the mountain.
Camellia sasanqua featuring large rose-form flowers. As yet, haven’t found a name for this gorgeous specimen which flowers in our cold, August winters.
The first of the glorious winter shades. These blush pink beauties are the first of the doubles to flower. They were a welcome hello to the winter school holidays when I was teaching.
Enjoy the season and keep well.
WordPress just informed me I have been blogging about my garden for seven years – that’s amazing! Thank you to all my followers and to those who comment and share their thoughts and ideas – it’s great to a part of your botanical community!
This weekend, take time to smell the roses or the coffee – be in nature.
crabandfish garden 