In my last post I waxed lyrical about how well two of the five bushes of Camellia sasanqua ‘Hugh Evans’ had performed this year, with larger and fuller blooms than usual. What I failed to mention was that the other three had produced entirely average displays, with normal numbers of normal sized blooms. Some plants … Continue reading Sasanqua season 2018 – 3
Mt Edgcumbe
Sasanqua season 2018 – 2
I'd missed a week when I visited Mt. Edgcumbe on Tuesday and things had moved on a bit, lots more was in flower. First up was 'Hugh Evans' (1G-046) and it was immediately obvious that this is going to be a good year for at least some plants. The blooms on this bush are bigger … Continue reading Sasanqua season 2018 – 2
Sasanqua season 2018
Looking back I see that my first post on sasanquas last year was on October 11 as well, so this year is pretty much in step with last, in spite of the Beast from the East and a prolonged drought. I was at Mt Edgcumbe on Tuesday and having missed a week, was keen to … Continue reading Sasanqua season 2018
Martha Brice.
There are two plants labelled Camellia japonica 'Martha Brice' in the Mt Edgcumbe collection, one in Australian Section 4C, the other in American Section 1E. They are quite different so at least one must be labelled incorrectly. I have concluded that it is the one in Area 4C that is correct, in spite of 'Martha … Continue reading Martha Brice.
Never say die.
Sometime around mid July last year a very large beech tree came down in section 1L, making a mess of a number of the camellias in the section. It was several weeks before the tree was completely cleared and the damage could be properly assessed. At that time I noted that 8 were damaged but … Continue reading Never say die.
You looked? Well look again.
My note for 1G-006 'Blood of China' is short and to the point, it should be solid red and is bicolored. It's wrongly labelled, job done, move on, don't need to look at that again. Well today I looked a little closer. What I saw was that there are bicolored flowers, almost solid red versions … Continue reading You looked? Well look again.
Of Clouds and Silver Linings
I headed up to Mount Edgcumbe this morning, it being Tuesday. It was cloudy but dry when I set out. The Rame Peninsular, occupied at its eastern end by the Edgcumbe Estate, has its own climate. This morning it was 50m visibility fog, with a drizzle that was getting steadily heavier. I stayed an hour, … Continue reading Of Clouds and Silver Linings
It’s an odd year, as usual
Every year is an odd year. When you revisit the same place year after year you really notice the differences. This year at Mount Edgcumbe there seem to be a lot of exceptionally large blooms and a lot of exceptionally small blooms. That is, some varieties are flowering bigger than usual, some smaller. Another oddity … Continue reading It’s an odd year, as usual
Joviality, sort of.
Perhaps NASA could just do a quick whizz by Mt Edgcumbe with their Jupiter probe and see if they can make sense of Jupiter, the camellia variety. They might make more sense than I can. Oddly enough their probe is called Juno, which is a synonym for Jupiter in the camellia world. Not so very … Continue reading Joviality, sort of.
‘Ginryû’ & pitardii.
There is not the remotest reason for these two taxa to become confused. I should probably put my hand up and admit my culpability inasmuch as when I was working on a nursery and selling camellias, we had a variety labelled Camellia pitardii which I knew even then to be wrong. We were buying … Continue reading ‘Ginryû’ & pitardii.
Jim's Camellias 