The camellia I grew from seed at least 7 years ago has finally finally FINALLY bloomed! It skulked behind the Joe Pye Weed next to the horse stalls in the paddock behind the house for a long time before it suddenly shot up last year. The seed parent was the single white species Camellia sasanqua, so I was expecting a single white. It's pink! I love white flowers but I'm even more thrilled that it's pink. Sweetly fragrant too, as was its parent and as are many sasanqua cultivars.
The plant is very tall and slender because I planted it right next to the stalls (:/), and because of competition with Joe Pye. But hey, I didn't plant the Joe Pye there, it grew there by itself, and
who would cut this down?
Willowleaf aster 'Miss Bessie' last week, before the hard freezes of the past couple of days.
About a third of her flowers still remain and the bees are still buzzing all around her.
There are a few buds and flowers on 'Climbing Old Blush' that survived the dip into the 20's. It's usual for China roses to bloom into November and December, and they remain green all winter. Elizabeth Lawrence wrote of going out in the snow on Christmas Eve to pick some frost bitten buds from her Climbing Pink Daily as she called it when she lived in Raleigh, NC, about 30 miles from where my garden resides.
To see more gardens in bloom visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens, host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.
I was surprised to see a "climbin" Old Blush. It is a beautiful rose, I have the not climbing one and indeed it flowers into December. Your willow leaf Aster is a beauty too.
ReplyDeleteClimbing Old Blush is an old sport of OB. It's been traced all the way back to 1752!
DeleteSweetbay, I love watching asters in your garden. What a pretty season you are now, although the leaves have fallen down.Have a nice weekend!
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed that you grew a Camellia from seed! Wow! That cold weather took care of almost all the blooms in my garden. :(
ReplyDeleteAdd me to the list of people impressed that you grew camellia from seed. And it bloomed, too! I was at the Raulston Arboretum yesterday and saw some stunning tall blue asters still blooming, still loaded with bees. I thought of your blog and said to myself, those must be Miss Bessie. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe asters are such photo stars. Hard freezes have down ours in up here, so it's nice to see the bees enjoying yours a little longer. I love that shade of purple.
ReplyDeleteThat is an astounding amount of swallowtails!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful vieuws out of your garden Sweetbay.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful day.
Congrats on your newly blooming camellia! You must feel like a proud parent. We had a similar experience: Years ago we transplanted a red-blooming camellia to another site, and some time later we noticed a seedling growing in the original site. We assumed it would be the same as the parent; but when it bloomed, we were surprised that it was pastel pink!
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