Sasanqua camellias are still in full flower. And we have a few hundred in need of a new home. We will be open to the public again this Friday 17 and Saturday 18 May 2019 – 8.00 to 3.00. Whether you need one, two or a bunch for a screen or hedge, come and visit, wander our garden, check out some of our plants.
We also have a substantial range of japonicas and hybrids – about 150 different varieties. Come check them out.
We have quantities of all the sasanquas pictured here – and more. These in particular make great hedging plants.
Come visit. Check our website for details and more open days.
Want camellias? Why wait? Choose from the best range of camellias you are likely to find anywhere – grown on the Sunshine Coast for local conditions – South East Queensland.
Nursery open this Friday 10 and Saturday 11 May, 8.00 to 3.00 both days. Walk our garden and see our 400 camellias – sasanquas in full flower and japonicas starting. Many camellias for you to choose from.
See our website blog for details www.camelliaglen.com
Camellia Egao – one of the hundreds of camellias available this Friday 3 and Saturday 4 May 2019 – Star Wars Day – also World Naked Gardening Day. Don’t worry! We won’t be in theme or character ……
The nursery will be open – have a walk in our garden and see some of our 400 camellias in flower. The sasanquas are in full flower and the early japonicas are starting.
Drop in from 8.00am to 3.00pm both days.
See our web site blog for details and more open days and events coming up.
www.camelliaglen.com
Camellia Japonica Alba Plena – an oldie and still a goodie
This Friday and Saturday are our first official ‘open days’ for this season – although we have had a steady stream of people coming in by arrangement
We will have the best range of camellias that we will have for the season as we do sell out of varieties. Most plants are in 140mm pots with a small number in 200mm pots, mostly sasanquas with a few japonicas and hybrids.
The sasanquas are flowering now and are putting on a good show – the japonicas will follow in the coming weeks.
A few of our sasanquas in 200mm pots
Some of our camellias ready to go – in 140mm pots
Sasanqua Flamenco Dancer
So whether you need one camellia for the garden, a half a dozen for a screen, or a bunch more for a hedge, come visit, see our camellias growing in our garden, and buy some for yours. We have about 50 different varieties of sasanqua and some 150 varieties of japonica and hybrids. Ask us about screening/hedging varieties, ask us about our fragrant small leaf hybrids.
And remember, sasanquas handle full sun but also perform well in part shade; japonicas – in our climate (SE Queensland) – do best in part shade, as the flowers can burn in our winter sun. See our Culture Notes on this web site.
Some varieties to look for:
Alba Plena, Minato No Akebono, Pope John XXIII, Betty Ridley, Cherries Jubilee, Drama Girl, Edna Butler, Erin Farmer, Isaribi, Midnight Magic, Paradise Blush, Polar Bear, Scentuous, Shirley Norup, Star Above Star, Tama No Ura, Yuletide ……..
Camellia season is almost upon us here in South East Queensland – so we have been busy tidying our young camellias and making them look as good as possible.
Some need staking upright – and this process means that we take a good look at each plant.
The ‘Elegans’ family, Elegans, Elegans Champagne, Elegans Splendour and Elegans Supreme, as young plants, are often untidy, with short upright growth with invariably a vigorous branch shooting off at right angles, low on the plant.
Elegans Splendour – young plants with a strong branch at right angles
Elegans Splendour – new branches
Tying up the branches can result in them snapping at the trunk.
Another aspect that applies to all camellias is that a young plant may decide to put on a flower bud at a early stage, on the leading growth. Once this happens, the plant puts all its energy into developing the flower and as a result, no new growth will happen – until the following season. Ultimately, both plants will grow away the following season.
Plant on the left has developed a flower bud. The other has put energy into vegetative growth and is much taller.
The camellia season is approaching fast – we have a few flowers on early sasanquas like Mikuni Ko, Chojiguruma, Bonanza, Sparkling Burgundy – spot flowers for sure but it is nice to see the colour coming.
We plan to have a number of ‘open days’ again this season where folk can visit, wander our garden, check out the 400 or so Camellias in our garden – and perhaps buy one or two for yours.
As usual, we are available by appointment at other times – we just ask that you call in advance to make a suitable time.
We will also have a number of camellia shows, garden club events etc. that we need to schedule around.
So – this is the 2019 plan so far:
Open days will be 8.00am to 3.00pm
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 April 2019 – open
Friday 3 and Saturday 4 May 2019 – open
Friday 10 and Saturday 11 May 2019 – open
Friday 17 and Saturday 18 May 2019 – open
Friday 24 and Saturday 25 May 2019 – open
Friday 31 May and Saturday 1 June – open
Friday 7 June – CLOSED
Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 June 2019 – Maleny Garden Club ‘Gardening on the Edge’ – Maleny Showgrounds. See www.malenygardenclub.org
Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 June 2019 – open (we will be at GOE and the nursery will be open this weekend)
Friday 14 and Saturday 15 June 2019 – open
Friday 21 June CLOSED
Saturday 22 June 2019 – open
CLOSED 28 and 29 June 2019 – rest days
Friday 5 and Saturday 6 July 2019 – open
Friday 12, Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 July 2019 – Queensland Garden Expo, Nambour Showgrounds. See www.qldgardenexpo.com.au We will be there at site No 295 with the most extensive range of camellias that you are likely to see anywhere. Our nursery will be CLOSED this weekend.
CLOSED Friday 19, Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 July. See us at the Toowoomba Camellia Show.
Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 July 2019 – Toowoomba Camellia Show – Toowoomba TAFE. See us there. We will have an extensive range of camellias available. See www.toowoombacamelliashow.com
CLOSED Friday 26 and Saturday 27 July 2019. See us at Queensland Camellia Society Annual Show and Sale, Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens, Brisbane.
Sunday 28 July 2019 – Queensland Camellia Society Annual Show and Sale, Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens – see us there. We will have an extensive range of camellias available. Also Camellia displays, camellia talks, morning teas/lunches and more.
Friday 2 and Saturday 3 August 2019 – open
This will be all of our planned Open Days for this season. As usual, we will continue to be open at arrangement.
There are lots to do in the garden at the moment – the mowing, weeding and mulching never seem to finish. But we do get to walk the garden and see the progress of the camellias – the flower buds that are just bursting to pop into colour.
Come visit us – wander our garden. See our camellias in flower – buy some for yours!
Cheers
Camellia Reticulata Red Crystal – another favourite
It’s summer – and it has been hot and dry here in SEQueensland. January was reported as being the driest on record. Thankfully, we have been fortunate to have received some 80mm of rain in early February which takes some pressure off the garden plants.
However, some of our camellias have suffered. These are the japonicas that are getting too much sun and are getting foliage scorching/ sunburn, and a couple of more newly planted plants suffering from the roots drying out.
Camellia Japonica leaves showing sunburn
More japonica foliage with sunburn
There is little that can be done after the event – these leaves will fall eventually, or you can prune these out, when the weather becomes a little cooler.
Keeping water up to plants as well as possible is the best we can do. Otherwise, look at the position and decide whether you are happy to suffer the sunburn, or decide to relocate the plant, or give it some shade.
Elsewhere, our camellias are thriving, putting on new growth and now putting on flower buds. Promise of a good camellia flowering season in the coming weeks.
Sasanqua Mikuni Ko – one of our earliest to flower – full of flower buds.
Camellia tarokaja – full of bud
Species Crapnelliana and random japonicas and hybrids in the background, Azalea Alphonse Anderson in the front.
It’s that time of the year when we are busy going camellia cuttings. Well, we are just about finished actually.
We are holding an demo day for those folk who are interested to see and learn how to do camellia cuttings, cutting grafts, raise seeds et al on the weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday 18, 19 and 20 January 2019. Aimed towards members and friends of the Queensland Camellia Society, we are also inviting other interested folk – we just ask that you call first so we know when to expect you.
We had this on our FB page and repeat it here for your info:
“It’s camellia cutting time..at Camellia Glen in Palmwoods.
We are holding a cuttings and cutting grafts weekend Fri Sat and Sunday 18, 19 and 20 January 2019 open to all Camellia Society members (and friends).
This is an opportunity for you to learn, practice or just watch the process of taking camellia cuttings and cutting grafts. So if you have a camellia that you want to take cuttings off, come along and have a go. Bring along your cutting material or we can supply selected material from our trees. We will supply pots, medium and hormone. We can show you how to care for your cuttings at home or we can hold your cuttings here in our prop house until the cuttings are struck and ready to pot up.
Come and visit – any time between 8.00am to 4.00pm.
Camellia Glen – 52 McKays Lane Palmwoods
If you are not a QCS member and would like to have a look, you are welcome – just give us a call 54450333
We will probs have some snags for a bbq at lunchtime, tea coffee or byo stuff.
For some, spring is the principal camellia flowering time, so at this time we see lots of camellia shows and bloom competitions around Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide – the cooler places. And we will be visiting the Camellias Australia National Show later this week in Melbourne.
For us in south east Queensland however, our main camellia flowering time was around 4 to 6 weeks ago. This difference just reflects climate differences. Walking around our garden this week, it is quite apparent that all the sasanquas are all done, most of the japonicas are well past their peak with some finished, some still showing a random bloom particularly the late flowerers like Midnight Magic, Cherries Jubilee. The reticulatas are still in full bloom. Also blooming are some hybrids like Nicky Crisp, Tamzin Coull, Gay Baby, Adorable.
Reticulata Winter’s Own Variegated
It it is still dry and the days are getting warm, and this is the kind of weather that is just not good for our camellias. The recent westerlies are extremely drying and this results in our camellias going very soft very quickly due to the drying effect.
There is not a lot we can do about the weather, but we can choose camellias that suit our climate – and for that reason, we try to stay away from the very early flowering japonicas and the very late flowering ones.
So now that flowering is just about done, our camellias will very soon start putting on new growth. In this short window of time, we can start pruning – before the new growth starts. Prune to maintain shape, height, to thin out twiggy non productive bits, to encourage thickening growth on young plants. We can use secateurs, hand pruners or power pruners (my favourite); we can do a light tip prune, a savage ‘hatrack’ cut back, or something in between.
Japonica Royal Velvet
Whether we prune or not, depending on what your plants require, early spring is also fertilising time. Again, fertilising before the main growth season will give our plants the best chance to uptake nutrients. We can use a myriad of fertilizers – from liquid feeds (very labour intensive depending on the number of camellias you have), slow/controlled release prills, blood and bone, Kahoona (from Neutrog) or similar. Don’t be tempted to overfertilise – just don’t.
Then mulch, mulch, mulch. Mulch suppress unwanted weed growth, insulates the soil and root zone and retains moisture in the soil. It makes a huge difference.
And then we need a good lot of spring rain. Always water after fertilising – so if you can’t conjure up 10 to 20ml of rain on command, then you need to hand water. And not just a sprinkle, a good deep water.
Our camellias are very pest free when maintained in good order, but look for aphids in new growth. Hose them off, lick your fingers and squish them, or use a systemic insecticide if you choose. Flick off white scale if you see them, use pest oil or a combination of pest oil and a systemic insecticide (organic if you can – eg neem oil) if you see tea scale.
Look for red spider mite in the upper surface of leaves – usually early summer during a dry spell. This is when you get the bronzing down the centre of the leaf. Use a miticide to break the breeding cycle.
From here, hope for summer rain – we had great summer rain last season – and enjoy your garden – in no time at all, the sasanquas will be starting to flower again.
