Featured Flower: Camellia

Camellias are starting to bloom.

This week’s flower is the Camellia.  These lovely flowers are early bloomers and are welcomed signs of the New Year, often blooming in January.  They range in color from white, to cameo and pink, into a vibrant red and can be solid or variegated.  Their elegant forms range from simple single rows of firm petals to a multi-layer puff ball effect.  Most Camellias lack a scent and their firm waxy leaves are often used in creating corsages.  (Note how the photos below show increasing complexity of petal arrangement.)

Grow Gardens Nursery http://www.growgardensnursery.com/ at the corner of Highway 116 and Bloomfield Road in Sebastopol (formerly Bassigani’s – home of Hank the Tank a beautiful plus-size black cat), has long been a favorite choice for camellia bushes, and Cottage Gardens in Petaluma offers some exquisitely geometrical blooms http://www.cottagegardensofpet.com/.