Karma karma karma karma karma Camellia

You may remember my post about some Camellia sasanqua 'MonDel' that weren't looking their best.  When I came across this Camellia sasanqua 'Sho-No-Sake' in Windmill's garden looking beautiful even when covered with frost,  I thought it only fair to show how lovely these easy to grow (in our climate and acid soil)  gems really are.

In case you'd like a little music to go with the Camellia fest -

 

 

 

Later, while visiting another nursery, I came across these sasanquas.  The sasanquas bloom from late fall through winter, some overlap with the bloom time of the larger Camellia japonicas(late winter through spirng.)

Sorry I didn't get the varieties of all of these but, like the hummingbirds that seemed to be all over the place, I was flitting from flower to flower thinking each one was lovelier than the last.  Sorry about that, intoxicated by spring thoughts.  I promise to try to be more plant geeky in the future.

Those stamens are flirting with you.

These are a little more modest.

I had to include the C. sasanqua 'MonDel', 'Pink Yuletide' or (groan) 'Pink-A-Boo'

 

 

This sweetie is Camellia hiemalis 'Chansonette.'

A first sighting this season of  Camellia japonicas.  (If you live in an area where these don't grow, simply get a bolt of crepe paper, without unrolling it, trace a 3" circle on the paper.  Now put a staple in the middle of the circle and with scissors, cut along the line that you traced.  Once cut out, bring each circle of the crepe up toward what will be the center of the flower.  You can pull at the edges a little and crumple the crepe to get a more natural look.  Make many of these and paper clip them to whatever shrub you can see out of your kitchen window (the one over the sink that you look out of while doing the dishes.)  This will surely chase away the winter blues or at least get you placed in a room with fashonably padded walls where you'll be nice and warm in you special jacket. 

C. japonica 'Spring's Promise'   I love this one with that big boss of yellow stamens.  None of the japonicas in my garden or around town are blooming yet.  I'm thinking that these have been in a very protected area.

Loree (read about her camellia here)  and Louis recently posted about their first plant purchases of 2013. What was my first plant purchase of 2013?

  "Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dream, red gold and green, red gold and green."

Karma karma karma karma karma Camellia..."  (sasanqua 'Yuletide')