Welcome to this week’s ‘In A Vase On Monday’ when I am linking up with Cathy from Rambling In The Garden with a vase of flowers picked from my garden this morning.
This week I have chosen to showcase a few more camellia flowers. Their season is so short and their flowers so anticipated that I need to make the most of their beauty whilst they are available. Last week I used the beautiful pink bloom of Debbie. This week it is the turn of white and pale lemon flowers.
I have been buying camellias for a few years now and have amassed a small collection – all grown in pots of ericaceous compost against a front wall of the house. Sadly I have lost the name tags of my earlier specimens (a house move and a puppy made sure that my labels are a thing of the past). My choices this week are, I believe, Camellia japonica “Margaret Davis’ and Camellia x williamsii ‘Jury’s Yellow’. If anyone has any other views, please do let me know.
The delicate narcissi that I have used to compliment the pale yellow of Jury’s Yellow are recently planted narcissus pseudonarcissus, also known as the wild British daffodil. These are the blooms that Wordsworth spoke of in his most famous poem ‘Daffodils’ and they have just opened up in my garden.
This is the first year that I have cut camellia flowers for the house, always believing them unsuitable for a vase before now. Actually they cut very nicely – growing on woody stems with evergreen leaves they need little support from other flowers. They last for a few days in a vase, but the flower head will drop off at some point so they do not fade gracefully.
The book that you can see in some of these photos is ‘My Garden In Spring’ by E.A. Bowles. First published in 1914, my version is a reprint published by Forgotten Books in 2012. I have just started reading this and it is a delight. There are no colour photographs, but the language of the text more than makes up for that. To quote from the preface “Come into Mr Bowles’s garden and learn what true gardening is, and what is the real beauty of plants, and what the nature of their display.” I am three chapters in and the book is certainly living up to this description.
Chapter One is titled “When Does Spring Commence’ and is a discussion of various views on when spring really starts. For me it is when the camellias come into flower. The snowdrops and the iris belong in my eyes to the winter. I know that when the fat buds of my camellias spill out into beautiful full petalled flowers we really have reached the beginning of spring.
I hope you have enjoyed ‘In A Vase On Monday’ today and I will be back later in the week with my promised review of the day I spent at an Emily Quinton photography workshop. In the meantime I am trying to post more day to day gardening photos on my Instagram feed, so please do join me there.
If you were here last week you will remember that I used anemones and a camellia flower in the three bottles that I placed in a bathroom. The camellia flower only lasted two days before losing her head, but the anemones looked good for a full five days. This weeks vases have been placed on my kitchen windowsill which is warm and sunny, so I will let you know how they long they last.
I hope you will pop over to Cathy’s blog to have a look at what she and the others have found in their gardens this week.
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Love the “Jury’s Yellow” and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “real” yellow. As with roses, yellow is not seen very much and I love it.
Thank you Libby – it is an unusual shade for a camellia and very delicate. My favourite yellow rose at the moment is The Pilgrim – a David Austin rose. I am looking forward to seeing the roses again in June!
Hi Julie – your photography really shows off the vases with the different areas of focus and the effect of the light on the tray and the glass. And what beautiful soft colours your camellias are – so different from the brash and bold reds and pinks that are more common. How big are the pots you have them in? As you have said, having them inside even only for a few days gives you the chance to study and admire their shape and form and notice things you might miss when you see them in passing outside. Very lovely 🙂
Thank you Cathy – I am not sure of the size of the pots. I think they stand about two feet high and around i foot square. They are just black plastic as I find terracotta dries out too quickly for camellias which like to be kept damp. I grow ivy around the base of the plants and this hangs over and hides the pots.
Julie,
The yellow daffodils and pale yellow camellia ~loved it so much. It is more the way you write the simple aspect of gardening in ….way. Honestly I am not good in inthe language to add words to your beautiful admiration for gardening.And again I am sitting here with yesterday’s snowfall .But I can learn all the goddies before I dig my hand in the soil later.
Thank you Sajina – I am glad that I can share our spring with you!
Another thoughtfully arranged grouping Julie and beautifully captured. The yellow camellia is such a charmer–very unusual. I have found camellias can last fairly well, especially if floated in a shallow dish, much like hellebores.
That is a really good idea Susie – I do it with other flowers but had not thought of it for camellias.
A beautiful combination, I do like the way you use these tiny vases, which in the past I’ve never known how to use to advantage. I do have larges vases that are identical to produce a repitition along a table or mantel shelf that I enjoy using. The way that Camelias lose their whole flowering head rather than petal by petal as roses in one of hte things I’ve never liked about Camelias but in a vase it is not so important, or as Susie suggested floating them in water would be very effective. I need some shade lovers for pots on the terrace under the wisteria and a couple of Camelias might just be the answer with deep green foliage in summer and the bonus of some spring flowers.
I think that sounds like a beautiful idea Christina. I really like the look of the bushes when they are not in flower and they provide lovely greenery for flower arrangements year round. They do need to be kept well watered in pots – I understand that the flower buds start to form in June and to ensure lots of flowers you must water them regularly from then onwards. Is your wisteria in a pot? I would love to have a wisteria on the house wall but I can only have pots close to the house.
The wisteria are planted in the ground and cover the terrace. There are lots of images on the blog; the buds are already fat and beginning to colour so I’ll be posting pictures again soon. I know camellias need a lot of water to make buds but that might actually be easier in a pot rather than in the ground.
I love your little glass vases. They are a way of bringing a little spring into the house without picking too much. I have plenty of flowers out now but I can’t bear to pick them.
My Jury’s Yellow is not out yet but there are plenty of buds. Do you think your striped one could be Lady Vansittart? It looks like it to me.
I have had a look on google but got a wide variety of images Chloris – I think I need to look at a book. At least I have taken photos this year so that if I can find a good source to identify camellias from I will have something to reference to. Thank you for the suggestion and I will make a note of it. At least I seem to have identified Jury’s Yellow!
My CAmellias have yet to come into flower – I only have two – the dark pink one had to be cut down to stump because of disease but it is now looking quite healthy – I can’t quite figure out whether they are a little too blowsy for my taste or not – perhaps if I chose a cream one like yours they would fit in with my garden a little better.
I do agree they can be an acquired taste Elaine. As I said to Christina above, I really like them as evergreen bushes. The flowers are a very short lived bonus, but the glossy evergreen leaves work well in my garden year round.
Beautiful and elegant – I like the casual look with book and tray. Just made a note of the book…made me curious 😉
Let me know if you get the book – I bought mine on Amazon and am really enjoying it.
I’m also reading the Bowles book, having found the trilogy in a charity bookshop. The writing is charming, dense with information but not intimidating. I’m planning to visit his restored garden in North London next week.
I had not realised that his garden was open to the public Anne – I would really love to hear what you think of the restoration – perhaps as a comment here or you could e mail me (maybe with a photo or two?). Also my edition doesn’t mention this book being part of a trilogy – you are so lucky to have found the set! We have a few old bookshops around here so I am going to start hunting.