Camellia Flower Images

Nearly all the Camellias in my garden are nameless - either their labels are well and truly lost, or they've been rescued, unwanted, from other people's gardens. Identifying a Camellia from a photograph isn't always the answer, either.

Camellia flowers are so beautiful and varied in colour and form, so I've collected my best pictures to present in this image gallery page. Alas, most will just have to stay anonymous beauties, with loose descriptions like 'fluffy', 'spiky', 'creamy' and so on - rather than proper classifications like 'Japonica' and 'Sasanqua'. Without inside knowledge, even a Google image search can be a misleading thing. Mind you, locally bred varieties obviously turn up in New Zealand nursery lists, and these days there are so many new hybrids to choose from.

There are two main locations in my garden for Camellias - one is in the Wattle Woods, where many of my rescued shrubs were planted together some years ago underneath the big Wattle trees. Another assorted family of shrubs grows behind the garage - these came from a local nursery's sale table.

Two of the prettiest pinks live behind the Stables - these were bred my plantsman friend who lives around the corner. I call these Ivor's Pinks (I wonder why, hee hee).