On 1/4/09 04:05, in article
, "DaveP"
wrote:

Bob Hobden wrote (amid a well-worded and much deserved swipe) :

..... I understand there are over 1,000 williamsii hybrids alone ...

I don't think I've given much thought to Camellias for many years, but
it's funny how things suddenly click and cause a flood of memories.
Back in the very early '70s, there was a chappy living near Evesham
who'd become disillusioned with being an accountant and decided to
raise and grow Camellias instead. A brave move because of the time
span involved and as beautiful as they are, Camellias were never at
the forefront of 'Joe Public's' attention unless they were in flower.
IIRC he had quite a few of his own varieties, and he could certainly
grow excellent plants. They were mostly williamsii types and I think
it's fair to say that many were pretty close to existing varieties.
Nevertheless, they were well worth having and several were outstanding
so we sold as many as he could supply.

I really love Camellias and I'm sure part of it is early associations with
some that grew in our Torquay garden when I was a child and then later, in
our Guernsey garden. My ex fil had a wonderful 'Camellia Walk' and many
other specimens here and there all over the garden - he was a great
enthusiast and it was he who first introduced me to C. sasanqua Narumigata,
that lovely, early flowering, scented white one, when it was still 'rare' in
the Channel Islands. (I'm just astonished at what could be grown in so many
gardens there and isn't!) I think there's a danger of us being almost
complacent about them because we've become so used to them but their flowers
are exquisite and the old one I want to ID flowers for at least a couple of
months.

Anyway, I decided to google just one of the hybrids that I could
remember; C. 'Janie Anderson', which I grew in my Bromsgrove garden
and found that it is still around, being grown at the Duchy nurseries
in Cornwall of all places. Then I discovered that another, 'Elizabeth
Anderson' crops up on several grower's lists and gained an AGM after
being submitted by Trehane nurseries a couple of years ago. I don't
know what happened to David and have just a faint inkling that he
suddenly went off the scene, but it's nice to think that his
enthusiasm and inspiration nearly 40 years ago led to a plant that
looks good today and is likely to be around for many years to come.

Charlie might know. He and Liz were telling us of a garden in Cornwall
where the owner is a great Camellia expert - one of the "Tre's", I think,
so I've forgotten it already - sorry, Charlie Would C. Janie Anderson have
come from Burncoose originally as it's one of the C. williamsii?
I'm trying to find C. nitidissima (formerly C. chrysantha) and Anne Berry
kindly put me in touch with a Camellia expert in Dorsest who is mad about
Camellias and propagates lots of them. He's said that if he succeeds with
this one he'd let me have it but he thinks it's unlikely to flower outdoors
in the British Isles so we'd have to put it in one of the greenhouses.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
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