Our Open Days June 2011

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We will be ‘Open to the Public’ each weekend in June and most of July as follows. We are open 8.00 am to 3.00 pm.

  • Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 June
  • Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 June – see us also at the Maleny Garden Club ‘Gardening on the Edge” – Maleny High School hall
  • Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 June
  • Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 June
  • Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 July – see us also at Australia Open Garden Scheme, Camellia House, 116 Woombye-Palmwoods Road, Palmwoods, 10.00 am to 4.30 pm www.opengarden.org.au
  • CLOSED 8,9 and 10 July – Queensland Garden Expo
  • Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 July
  • Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 July

This is a camellia Flower Girl seedling that we have grown – it is a fantastic looking flower and we hope to propagate it in the future.

Flower Girl seedling

Open to the Public – camellias and vireyas

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Sunday 29 May, we will be at the Glasshouse Country Festival Garden Expo at Turner Park, Beerwah. Come in and see us at site 56. This is a great little show and lots of fun, and the weather is going to be just great……

For our open days  – here are a few dates –

  • Closed – Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May – we will be at Beerwah
  • Open – Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 June
  • Open – Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 June. We will also be at the Maleny Garden Club Gardening on the Edge, Maleny State High School.
  • Open – Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 June
  • Open – Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 June

Don’t forget the Queensland Garden Expo in Nambour – Queensland’s premier gardening event and winner of the Queensland Tourism Award for Best Event – Nambour Show Grounds Sunshine Coast 8, 9, 10 July

Open to the public – Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 May 8.00 am to 3.00 pm

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Just a quick note to anyone planning to visit this weekend. We are open both Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 May, 8.00 am to 3.00 pm.

We have some plants and blooms on display and several thousand more in the nursery if you are looking for something specific. We did a show last week and  some folk expressed disappointment that we did not have the variety they wanted. For that particular show, we took 48 camellias and 36 vireya rhododendrons – we grow over 200 varieties of camellia and 80 or so vireyas – we are unlikely to ever guess right! So if you don’t see what you want, please ask. Many people come along with their wish list from our web site, or wander the garden and come back with a wish list – we will do our best to satisfy all requests.

Please also remember that we do NOT have EFTPOS.

High Jinks

High Jinks

Both these flowers are on the same plant of High Jinks – very different looking flowers – both very beautiful.

Nitidissima again

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In a blog or two ago, we were saying that our C.nitidissima – or chrysantha – had not flowered for the past 8 years, and then we found flower buds this season – so we have been pleased.

Another close look and we have found a seed, about 6cm and sort of round – so we must have had flowers last year as well. We will have to be more diligent! We will keep an eye on the seed and wait for it to mature and see if we can grow something from seed. All the C.crapnelliana – another species – one with huge seed pods 12 and 13 cm round – are maturing and falling from last season’s flowers, so maybe the nitidissima may be soon. It is still really green, so time will tell.

One other species that we have been trying to prop for a few years is C. lapidea. We are excited to have a seedling coming on, about 12 months old and about 20cm tall. All attempts to prop from cutting and graft have been unsuccessful. We will keep trying as new material becomes available.

Open to the Public, camellias, vireyas

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Our open days will be on again for the next two weekends;

  • Saturday 14 May and Sunday 15 May – 8.00 am to 3.00 pm
  • Saturday 21 May and Sunday 22 May – 8.00 am to 3.00 pm

Please be aware that we do not offer EFTPOS – cash only please.

The following Sunday 29 May, we will be at the Glasshouse Sustainability Expo at Beerwah – see us there.

Half Aspasia Macarthur, half Margaret Davis

Camellia nitidissima/chrysantha

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What a glorious day – in fact, a perfect weekend – and we are so glad that our change of plans meant that we were able to be open to the public this weekend.

On one of our garden walks with some visiting camellia lovers yesterday, I was showing off our beautiful Camellia chrysantha , (also called C. nitidissima), and lamenting that, apart from the first year we planted it out in the garden, for the past 8 years, we have not seen a flower. We have been somewhat disappointed with this, as the plant is beautifully healthy, putting on an abundance of new growth – like now – but alas, no flowers.

Then, one of our visitors exclaims ” Is that a flower bud there?”. Closer inspection revealed three of four branches with a dozen or more round yellow buds, about 12 or 13mm in diameter, tucked tightly in the leaf axils of the older growth. We are pleased!

We have asked ourselves, is it because of the weather? are the conditions just right? is it now getting the right amount of sun/shade? We don’t really know, we are just pleased. We took photos, just to prove the point!

Buds on c. Chrysantha

So this afternoon, we wandered the garden again, as we like to do after a day working the garden, interspersed with talking camellias and rhododendron, magnolias and michellias with visitors, (and selling a few) and we see about 8 little round, yellow buds, on the ground, under the chrysantha bush. Oh the horror!!

What we are now thinking is that, among the abundant bird life we ‘enjoy’ in our garden, one or more has taking a liking to little yellow buds. We know that, when the chooks free range in the garden, they are often seen pecking at new shoots and little flower buds. Maybe one of the many miners, or rosellas, or blue faces..

Maybe when the tree gets bigger, the number of buds will out strip the bird’s enthusiasm to pick them off. I don’t know how big it will have to get, it’s 3 metres tall now.

Meanwhile, we think we know the answer……

Open Days – Camellias

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Change of plan – we are open this Labour Day long weekend – that’s Saturday 30 April, Sunday 1 May and Monday 2 May – 8.00 am to 3.00 pm.

Our first couple of open days have worked very well with a good number of folk visiting. The sasanquas are flowering well and we have good stock available. It is still a little early in the season for most of the japonicas although we have managed to pick blooms from about 30 varieties in the garden.

Another fairly torrential rain event yesterday did not do the flowers any good, but the cooler weather has meant that the flowers are opening well and staying fresh. Such a great time in a camellia garden, if a little damp under foot.

Open again Saturday 7 May, just the right time to get Mum a camellia for Sunday – Mother’s Day. We are closed for Mother’s Day on Sunday 8th. See our earlier entry for more open days.

Please note, we do not have an EFTPOS facility.

Camellias; Vireyas; Michelias; Magnolias; Open Days- Camellia Glen Nursery

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For our open days, we will have some 150 different varieties of camellias – sasanquas, japonicas, hybrids, reticulatas, and species; about 50 different cultivars of vireya rhododendron; a small number of michelias, and some seedling magnolias. Not every variety on our variety list is available in any one year, but we will endeavour to have most in most years.

Most camellias are in 140mm pots; there are a small number of 200mm pots. Vireyas are also mostly available in 140mm pots.

There are some 300 camellias in our grounds along with vireyas, magnolias, michelias and azaleas. It is not a show garden, but it gives viewers a good indication on the growth habit of many different varieties, and an opportunity to see plants in flower.

I know a lot of folk have been waiting for our Open Days to commence – we look forward to seeing you.

Open days, open to the public, camellias, vireyas

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We start our open days next weekend. Here are some dates:

  • Open – Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 April 2011 – 8.00 am till 3.00 pm
  • Open – Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 April
  • Open By Appointment Monday 18, Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 April. Please call or email first.
  • Closed Friday 22 – Good Friday, 23, 24, 25 – Anzac Day, and Tuesday 26 – Easter Monday holiday.
  • Closed Saturday 30 April and Sunday 1 May – see us at the Gympie Garden Expo. Also on that weekend – Toowoomba Gardenfest.
  • Open Saturday 7 May
  • Closed Sunday 8 May – Mother’s Day
  • Open Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 May, and 21 and 22 May.
  • Closed 28 and 29 May – see us at the Beerwah Expo and Garden event on Sunday 29.
  • Maleny Garden Club – Gardening on the Edge – Sat 11 and Sun 12 June.

Queensland Garden Expo – Nambour – Friday 8, Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 July – see us there. Queensland’s premier garden show. Come and see why this show was this year’s Winner of the Queensland Tourism Awards for Festivals and Events.

More dates later. At other times please call or email to arrange for suitable times.

Open Days; Camellias; Vireyas

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It is the 2nd of April, Camellia season is just around the corner here in sunny Queensland, and yes, that’s in Australia. Vireya rhododendron have been flowering beautifully after the rain and will continue throughout the year as they do.

The early flowering sasanquas camellias started seriously a few weeks ago, and because of the somewhat unseasonal hot weather, the flowers have struggled in the 27 to 29 degree C. heat. We have had showers for the past week and they are enjoying the cooler change – it’s only 24 today. Little Pearl, Pure Silk, Jennifer Susan, Sparkling Burgundy, Bonanza and Mikuni Ko (two of the earliest for us), to name a few, are all beautiful, filling the air with their sweet scent.

Early flowering japonicas like Arejishi, Takanini, Alba Plena and Little Man, are in flower, bringing colour throughout the garden.

The sasanquas will continue for some weeks with the later ones like Bert Jones flowering until June, and many spot flowering throughout the season. Some may think that this us an early close to our season, but we have had flowers on the early sasanquas since January.

Japonicas will come in to flower over the next few weeks and will continue through to August. For us, anything flowering after this and into September is too late – it is getting hot again, and the flowers start to suffer.

Our season has been a little crazy over the past 5 or 6 months. Many japonicas continued to flower very late- in to December. This changed the usual ‘new growth’ pattern which happens September and December here. Instead we had flowers. Walking the garden now, some japonicas are still putting on new growth, and developing flower buds at the same time. We put this down to the exceptional rain events that we have experienced.

But is is all good, the plants will do what they need to do according to the season, and they will still be beautiful.

We will start our open days next week. See the dates in the next entry.