Camellias to brighten a winter day
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Do you enjoy a steaming hot cup of tea on a cold wintery day? It comes to you with thanks to the humble Camellia sinensis, just one of the many species of Camellia. Just like your cup of camellia tea warms your body, the camellia flower brings warmth to your garden, brightening up dark corners when there's not a lot of things flowering.
This winter beauty flowers all through winter into spring, and is an incredibly hardy, low maintenance plant.
Camellias are versatile too. They are fantastic when used as hedging, they can fill a shady corner, or they can be turned into a feature, like this beautiful cloud pruned camellia (pictured). Perfect in formal or Japanese inspired gardens.
Camellias are so easy that unless you are hedging, espaliering or cloud pruning, they don’t really need to be pruned, but if you are going to prune then do it at the end of winter when flowering has finished and when they are about to begin their major growth period in spring.
If your camellia seems overcrowded with buds, you may like to pick off some of the buds to allow the remaining ones to develop into larger flowers. But this is by no means a necessary task, your camellia will flower beautifully nonetheless without this extra detail.
If you have a shaded spot in your garden, are looking for a tough yet beautiful plant that will add some colour, a camellia is a perfect choice.