I have been taking pictures of Camellias for about 15 years, going through a succession of digital cameras in the process. In many cases I have revisited the same plant in the hope of taking better pictures than any I have taken before. In some cases I have seen a variety in flower only once. Taking pictures of the same variety repeatedly is a good way to highlight the variability of many, if not most, varieties from one season to another. Where I have the pictures to show it, I have made up composite images showing the range of variation I have seen.

Some varieties vary only a little and I have used a single image. Others may vary a lot but I don’t have the images to show it so have used a single image.

Some of the variation in colour will be due to differing light conditions and camera settings when the pictures were taken. I use software to alter colours to be as close to accurate as possible, but without a bloom in front of me I am reliant on memory. The colour will look different on a computer screen compared to a real flower outdoors.

No indication of size is given and most pictures have been cropped so the bloom nearly fills the frame. Thus all blooms look the same size. They are not. I will try to address this at a later stage.

My pictures have been taken at numerous locations and I have no record of where in most cases. I have relied on the name on the label in the first instance, checking it against the description in the Camellia Register or in books by Jennifer Trehane or Stirling Macoboy. Some of the register descriptions are brief and vague, many are not in my illustrated books. The owners of the plants have generally obtained them through the nursery trade and having worked in it, I know that names are not always correct. Where I know that a name is wrong, I don’t include the image in the gallery but in some cases I am unsure whether a name is correct or not. Descriptions, even pictures, of blooms produced in another part of the world may not accurately portray how the variety behaves in the UK.

I would be delighted to receive feedback about any of the images or identifications via the contact form.