I am in the process of compiling galleries of images of camellias that I have taken over several years, mostly in Cornwall where I live and where four of the five National Collections of Camellias are located.
When that is complete I intend to create pages of similar varieties as an aid to identification.
It would be great if I could include information about flower size, foliage, flowering time, garden performance and so on, but that is for later.
I would also like to make recommendations for varieties for different purposes.
Alongside that I intend to blog about camellia related issues as they arise. Some of the blog entries I intend to expand on as articles.
I have had the website jimscamellias.co.uk for some years but am no longer maintaining it. All the content will be transferred to this site in due course.
Jim's Camellias 
Dear Mr. Stephens,
As an enthusiastic amateur with Camellias, I just want to express thanks for your photographic collection of these wonderful plants. I frequently use it for reference, together with the ICS Register. It’s a pity that we live so far from Mt. Edgcumbe – and, indeed, that I have to continue to work full time into my 70s – albeit with a contract gardening partnership!
Please keep up the good work!
Sincerely
Adrian House
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Thank you! It’s very pleasing to me that what I essentially do for pleasure is of use to others. I am very aware that I am fortunate indeed to be retired and have the health and resources to do what I do at Mount Edgcumbe. I hope to be able to do so for a few years yet, it’s not a task with an end in sight.
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Hi Jim,
Always a delight to dip into your fund of knowledge. Beautiful pictures and such a valuable reference website. Koto-no-Kaori has the most delightful perfume. Minus 5C here today everything solid. Roll on spring. Looking forward to next years visit. Keep up your good work. Seasons greetings.
Kind regards,
Mike Timberlake
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Hello Jim,
Thank you for investing so much of your precious time in the making of this online enclopaedia.
Your photo gallery is a delight to visit and the information is overwhelming. Since moving to France (Correze), I have fallen in love with them – they brighten up the winter garden with their luscious flowers. I own the Encyclopaedia written by Jennifer Trehane, thinking I could identify my amateur collection of 18 camellia’s, not knowing that there were so many. I still have not identified all of them and hope to do so with your photo’s.
Kindly,
Ludmila
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Identification is very very difficult. Anyone who tells you otherwise is being dishonest. You are welcome to send me pictures of yours and I’ll see whether I recognize any of them.
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Hello Mr. Stephens,
I am starting my camellia collection and i would like to ask for your help with identification.
I await your reply!
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Hallo Jim,
have you ever come across ‘Queen Victoria’? An orangery in East Germany got Prince Albert and are now looking for Queen Victoria. It is an English cultivar. Do you think it is possible to find a nursery who sells this camellia?
Luise
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I haven’t come across the variety ‘Queen Victoria’. I see from the Register entry that it has many synonyms, but none is familiar. I cannot find any indication that it is in commerce either. It might be in a collection somewhere so it might be worth posting an enquiry on the RCM Facebook page, see if anyone else has come across it. I’d be happy to try and propagate it, not least to get a plant for the Mt Edgcumbe collection.
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Thank you Jim
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Hallo Jim and Luise
I can only help you with a lithograph of this plant.
Luc
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Hey Jim,
I would love to use one of your photos for the American Camellia Society’s quarterly journal. May I contact you by email? Please reply. I would love you use a high resolution photo of ‘Crimson Robe’. Thank you, Celeste M. Richard
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Hi Jim,
Love your work so far, it’s been really helpful to select camellia varieties for my garden. I now have some 70 named varieties growing. I’m in Tasmania the most southern state of Australia, ideal for growing cold climate plants. Thanks again Rob
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I’ve spent a few days in Tasmania, it’s high on my list of places I’d like to go back to. Comparable climate to here but completely different flora, very interesting.
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Hi Jim,
Thank you for your fabulous camellia site!
Could I please, use your lovely photo of Camellia ‘Phyl Doag’ – https://jimscamellias.com/camellia-galleries/camellias-p/phyl-doak/ – for a file that I have just started on Dave’s Garden. It would have the first prime spot, and I would accredit you as the photographer – https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/251199/
I would need a high resolution/original size photo so that I can enter a size 800 x 800 photo to fill that spot.
We also have a Mt Edgcumbe here in NZ, but it is not your one with the camellias growing on it!
Thank you,
Annette (RosinaBloom)
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Certainly. I will set about tracking down the original picture and see if I have others that I’ve taken since.
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Dear Jim and Luise
Concerning ‘Queen Victoria’
If you want, I can help you with a litho of this cultivar.
Greetings from Flanders/Belgium.
Luc
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Luc, thank you, but I found a picture of Queen Victoria on the ICS page. Luise
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Hi Jim, what a great website! I live in the South East of UK on well manured, neutral clay and started purchasing Camellia Sasanquas about 4 years ago. I only have a relatively small garden but have managed to squeeze in a `Yume’ (possibly my favourite), an `Elfin Rose’ (in a pot trained as an espalier), and a `Narumigata’ (currently planted against a 6′ fence). It is the latter I wanted your advice on. I wonder whether I should lift the `Narumigata and pot it up for a position on my SW facing terrace – my 6′ fence runs only 18″ from a path and I’m concerned as to whether there is enough space for it in its current position, and whether it could be susceptible to cold spring winds once it grows beyond 6′ high? I know you dont provide an advisory service as such but would be most grateful for your opinion.
Also, I would love to squeeze another Sasanqua into my borders which are sun/semi shade, but it would need to be very compact, upright growing and no higher than 6′ or so. Temperatures here rarely drop below -6C. Do you have any recommendations?
Kind regards
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I’m not a big fan of growing Camellias in pots, even though I have quite a few myself. They eventually seem to run out of steam and end up looking unhappy and not flowering well, in my experience, unless you are able to keep potting them on into bigger and bigger pots. I would keep the ‘Narumigata’ in the ground, tie its branches back against the fence and take off any branches that stick too far forward if they can’t be tied in. If it gets a fair bit of sun it will help keep it compact but ‘Narumigata’ is a big and spreading variety naturally.
I’m short of ideas for another compact growing sasanqua, the two that spring to mind are ‘Paradise Little Liane’ and ‘Yuletide’ but neither are reliable flowerers in my limited experience with them. I have ‘Navajo’, ‘Cleopatra’ and ‘Paradise Belinda’ and while they are all capable of growing over 6′, I won’t allow them to as they are in front of windows. If ind that in full sun you can prune quite hard after flowering and still get plenty of bud set on the new growth.
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Dear Mr Stephens,
I’m hoping rather desperately that you may be able to give me some advice. We live in the south of France and have recently had to cut down some mature trees that were shading our neighbour’s garden. Unfortunately, the person that we engaged to carry out this work today has also cut down our beautiful, in-flower camellia tree. I would estimate that the tree is at least 30 years old, probably much older. It was in the best of health and flowered profusely on multiple branches. It has been cut down to within about six inches of the ground with no leaves or twigs remaining. Is there anything at all that I can do to try to help it to regenerate or is it a lost cause? Although we are in the south of France, we live in the mountains so the climate is not too dry or too hot.
Many thanks in anticipation for any advice that you may be able to provide.
Kind regards
Karen
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I would expect it to survive and grow back. They’ve even managed to pick just about the best time possible for such drastic pruning. What I would expect to happen is for a lot of buds to push through the bark and start to grow away as shoots. You’re not going to need all of them so I would select maybe 5 or 6 of the strongest, evenly spaced around the old trunk, cut the rest flush at the base. From there on you need to treat it much as you would a young plant, though it will probably grow very vigorously for the first few years, pushed on by an oversized root system. My own preference would be to pick the best shoot at some point and remove the rest but you may choose to keep more and go for a bushier plant. It doesn’t much matter when you make that choice, it could be at some point this growing season or next winter. You may get very long and rather floppy growth after midsummer which you should shorten enough to be self supporting. If the plant was in good health then there is no need to feed it, which would only make for even more vigorous and probably floppy growth. Camellias generally make a shortish flush of growth in spring; pause briefly then make a second longer flush from around July/August. Lack of moisture is unlikely to be an issue with the first flush but might be for the later one. Water generously but infrequently; no more than fortnightly, probably much less. Good luck, and let me know how it progresses.
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Thank you so much for your very speedy and informative response. My first inclination was to rush out to find a high nitrogen feed which was clearly not the best of ideas! I will follow your advice to the letter and keep you informed of progress – onwards and upwards!
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Hello, Jim,
I just want to express my thanks. I am a young camellia enthusiast living in Los Angeles, where the weather is quite hot and I often have to provide shade for the camellias. This year, Nuccio’s Nursery in Los Angeles suffered severe damage in a major fire, but thankfully, they survived. This has made me decide to buy my favorite varieties from them as much as possible. I am very thankful for the photos you provided; your website has greatly helped me in selecting camellia varieties. Your pictures are clear, the layout is neat, and you perfectly capture the best poses of each variety. I know this takes a lot of time and effort, and I am deeply touched by your dedication. It must be your profound love for camellias that inspires this. Thank you once again.
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I really appreciate your positive feedback, I’m glad my website has been a help to you. Be aware that some camellias will flower quite differently in different climates, and yours is certainly very different from mine in SW England. I’m glad to hear that Nuccio’s Nursery has survived, I’d heard a bit about the damage they’d suffered but at that point they’d not been able to get back in and fully take stock.
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