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Sunday, January 22, 2012

January Camellias Duke Gardens

Thanks to all that kindly commented on the passing of Grumpy the cat, Meg and I were lifted greatly by your wonderful support. Valentine is trying out for coffee kitty, she is a leg kitty, only when you have been very still. Thinking about fostering another cat from Independent Animal Rescue in Durham for now.

On January 20th I walked around Duke Gardens to see if any camellias were blooming. I have photographed many of the camellias in Duke Gardens for the past 3 years. It takes good timing to see some of the camellias in bloom. Below are 15-17 of the flowers I can't not recall shooting before, there are 22 different camellias photos in all. I did not shoot photo some of the other camellias in bloom like Yule Tide, Mr Sargent, October Affair, Kanjiro and few few others I can't recall or had no names on them. My guess is 35-40 different camellias were in bloom.
 Camellia japonica 'Pride of Descanso'
A huge white bloom!
Camellia japonica 'Lemon Glow' 
This is considered a yellow camellia, the buds were yellowish, I barely found much yellow in it. Might be yellower when first opened.
Camellia japonica 'Tama Vino'
Loved this camellia, the 3+ inch blooms have whitish edges that really grabbed me. The plant grows short and wide, the gardens had two of them maybe three foot tall. Thinking of perhaps adding this one to our garden, Camellia Forest has in on their online catalog.
Camellia japonica 'San Dimas'
I think this camellia might have been redder than shown here, did have a lovely display of medium sized flowers.
 Camellia japonica 'isaribi'
 Camellia japonica 'Lester M Allen'
 Camellia japonica 'Moonlight Bay'
Camellia japonica 'Precious Morning'
 Camellia japonica 'Mister Sam'
Camellia vernalis 'Dawn'
Camellia japonica 'Mathoyiana Supreme'
Camellia japonica 'Pink Icicle'

Camellia hybrid 'Koto no Kaori'

Camellia sasanqua hybrid 'Yume'
This 2 inch white flower blushed in pink made a beautiful display.
Camellia japonica 'R. L. Wheeler'
This large red camellia might have been featured before on the site, it is a knock out. Today I purchased this camellia at Southern States and will be planting it near Grumpy's grave in the garden.
Camellia japonica 'Lady Clare'
We have this one in our garden, just planted last year, no blooms yet. One of my favorites, these huge blooms cover the bush. Buy it if you love big showy camellias.
Camellia japonica 'Herme'
Camellia sasanqua 'Sekiyo'
 Camellia japonica 'Pink Perfection'
This camellia and the one below I really like. But they are not bee friendly, nothing bees can find pollen or nectar on, so we won't have them in our garden.
Camellia japonica 'Purity'
 Above and below is Camellia hybrid 'Yoi Machi' I featured this a few years back see here.
These flowers were much pinker than the photo in the link above.
Camellia japonica 'Adeyaka'
Camellia japonica  'Cinnamon Cindy'
Interesting camellia, thought I could smell cinnamon near the buds.

I took a lot of photos at Duke Gardens. Plan on posting photos of some of the new architectural structures in the garden and a special post on just park benches from the 55 acre gardens, there are a lot of them!
This stone gazebo is new from last year it faces what used to be the rose garden, now a huge fountain. They is a brand new gazebo made of curved timbers and secured with wooden pegs that is unlike any gazebo I have ever seen, you'll have to stay tuned to see it in a future post.
The pond has Mallard ducks on it this morning, first time in years that we had had ducks.

Yesterday I managed to plant two kinds of beets, English Breakfast radishes and salad mix in one of the cold frames. Our salad greens are about finished in the cold frames.

16 comments:

  1. Your camellia photos are just gorgeous. I love the shot of the benches, wonderful composition. Great shot of the Mallards and their reflection. Wonderful post and photo, have a Happy Sunday!

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  2. Camellia paradise! Excellent images of gorgeous blooms! I love the first one a lot, but they all are stunning! Interestingly, some of them look like hybiscus or even magnolia flowers (in my opinion).
    That stone gazebo - I think this is what they were building last June when I visited the garden. Looks nice! Randy, it's great that you can visit that garden so often!

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  3. Sometimes it takes time to grieve over your pet. One time it took me a year!! And of course, we overdid it by adopting 5 instead of 1:) I say go for it. There are so many cats that need good homes. I'm sorry for you loss.

    I love your Camellia shots. Really nice. I've tried them here and they just won't grow:) I think it might be the heat. They usually fry by the beginning of summer. No good:)

    I love that structure at the gardens. How much would that cost?!! Where could I put something like that?:) Maybe I'll knock out a couple neighbor's homes. Really interesting design.

    Hang in there.

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  4. Sorry about your kitty. I lost one last summer so I know how you miss them.
    All I can say about the Camellias is WOW! Just simply gorgeous. I am camellia envy now. The white blooms always look so pure and exquisite but I am loving those reds. Fantastic Photos.

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  5. Lovely shots of the Camellias! The one blushed with pink is my favorite. What a beauty.

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  6. You have shown I few I am not familiar with. Every time I see a certain customer, she insists that I need to have 'Adeyaka' in my garden, and I think she's right.

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  7. Hi there Randy, I was sorry to read of the loss of your cat in your previous post. I can imagine your other cats might lose their appetite for a while as they adjust too.

    Coming back to this post, I have never seen so many camellia varieties - great images. It’s a plant I have never grown. I don’t really have the right aspect for one but if I did (even though it wasn’t bee friendly) I’d go for Pink perfection. Funny that, I’m not a pretty person either :-)

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  8. Those camellias are so pretty! I think I like the white ones touched by pink the best. You did great photographing them. Love the mallards. Such a great shot. I hope they stick around for you.

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  9. What a nice set of Camellias. Like thumbing through a catalog, except your pictures are better. Once I get the deer problem solved I will add to our Camellias...

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  10. Randy--I'm always so jealous of your Duke Garden trips! I could easily live there at the gardens if only there weren't so many people. We're so sorry to hear about Grumpy; that is always such a hard thing. I always enjoyed your pictures of him. We hope you are Meg and the dogs are doing alright with his passing. We're thinking of you! Looking forward to some pics of hellebores!

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  11. Oh Randy, you really have shared some beauties. I have five Camellias, lost #6 over the summer to the drought. I did get 'Lady Clare' this past spring. Hooray!! She is limping along as there is a vole who is running around her roots.
    As I scrolled down, I saw so many I would love to have in my garden. Still need to find the perfect place for camellias. Bonanza bloomed this year with one or two little blooms. Yuletide was a new one this fall, and seems to be quite happy.....not only full of blooms when we got it, but put forth more after the others faded.

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  13. The photos are great--makes me wish it was even warmer here like where you live. I like the rock structures.

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  14. I must have missed this post when it first went up. Wonderful C. japonicas in the Duke Gardens; camellias are wonderful wherever they're found. You capture them so well.

    They're still blooming here. 2012 has been a good year for camellias.

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