Camellia x Williamsii Spring Festival
The Camellia x Williamsii Spring Festival brightened up this area of the back garden for a few weeks in April
Although the plant label clearly referred to it as being a Williamsii, I was left in doubt as I also see it named as a cuspidata hybrid, also sasanqua and even a japonica. The RHS list it as a cuspidata hybrid and under synonyms (Williamsii) so I guess thats enough confirmation for me.
In our garden
We planted Spring Festival in our back garden in late March of last year. The numerous buds started to open in mid April and continued to bloom for a good four weeks or so.
Camellias can take a bit of time to settle down, I was very pleased to see loads of buds developing in late Winter.
Mid April this year, I was happy to see the shrub smothered with blooms.
The final week of April, the weather turned quite cold after a spell of really warm Summer like weather, resulting in many of the flowers being badly damaged.
I was quite surprised as the frost was very light. Fortunately still quite a lot of buds to open.
Conclusion, although our back garden is North facing, (well its more North/West) we still get morning sun in the position where the Camellia is planted, not so good for some Camellias. It would also appear that although Spring Festival is fully hardy it is susceptible to frost damage. I guess I should consider moving it to a position that doesn’t catch the early morning sun.
Plant description
This Camellia with rather small double blooms and glossy dark green leaves, flowers profusely in mid April for at least four weeks. Don’t be put off with the small blooms as it is a rather magnificent Camellia with a slender habit, said to grow to a height of about seven feet.
It received the RHS award of garden merit.
Camellias, like Rhododendrons require acidic soil. If yours is neutral or leaning toward alkaline dig in plenty of ericaceous compost when planting and mulch over the shrub with this compost also, in fact give a mulch with ericaceous every year.
Do bear in mind that the blooms of Spring Festival are prone to frost damage, so avoid that morning sun.
Hardiness *** fully hardy
Position *** semi shade, avoiding morning sun
Height *** 6/7 ft
Soil *** acidic
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Three other Camellias were planted in the back garden at the same time as Spring Festival last year.
Camellia Japonica Lady Campbell.
The long lasting red flowers are abundant on a bushy plant which is happiest in a semi shaded position.
Long flowering period with this one, from early April, and still blooming in our garden in May.
Fully hardy in most parts of the UK, I wouldn’t recommend it for Aberdeen though. To be quite honest I have found that the only Camellia to flower profusely in Aberdeen is the (Williamsii Donation)
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Camellia Japonica Contessa Lavinia Maggi
Contessa Lavinia Maggi, sort of like the Rosa Mundi of the Camellia family. Flowered March/April in our garden. Plenty flower buds but seemed to have a habit of opening only two or three at a time.
Perhaps its one of those which takes several years to settle down.
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Camellia x Williamsii Debbie
Very free flowering with large mid pink double blooms. A highly recommended fast growing variety which blooms April/May.
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My site has been down for a week or so, very frustrating trying to get it sorted out.
I have had this problem before,on several occasions, seems like when the end of the month comes around I have been running out of bandwidth. I have been reading up on this and now have a bit of understanding.
I decided to change my host provider. Looking at many packages I came across Hostgator very reasonable price if you are hosting the one site. Works out at about £36 per year, if you choose the hatchling plan for a three year period. Well that’s how much it cost me last week when I subscribed, looking at their site today I see the price has come down further, just typical.
Not being so very technically minded, I thought I had no more to do than give them the cash and my website address along with the current host provider and away you go.
Not so simple. First thing you do is choose your package and then go through the step by step instructions. Next thing you have to do is, if you are with wordpress you have to open a blank wordpress account with hostgator, simple instructions for this. Then finally you have to click on transfer, once again you are given simple instructions. When this was completed I was activated within a few hours, they do say it can take between 24 and 72 hours to do.
With the hatchling plan which I chose you can have the one site, most importantly it states you get unlimited storage and also unlimited bandwidth, sound to good to be true? I hope not. I have added plugins recommended by hostgator which the say reduces the bandwidth.
Thanks Esther, I will drop by and have a look at your book list.
The flowers are pretty but I haven’t a clue about the blog and bandwidth. I thought you were working up to saying you will be moving your blog to a new site – but seemsnot (?).
My hosta is in full leaf (my one and only hosta). Whenever I see it I think of you!
P.S. The booklist is there now.
Keep my fingers crossed Donna.
Our Camellias also got damaged Sunil, everything is now growing like mad.
Hello Alistair, it looks like you’ve been lucky with your Camellias this year. We had early warm weather – which prompted our Camellias to flower – followed by a frost-snap, which ruined the flowers and caused many of the buds to fall off. It hit some early magnolias too. It was very frustrating and it wasn’t just us affected. I guess with early flowering plants that are sensitive like this, you win some, you loose some; at least the display last year was stunning.
I expect we will be baking again soon too. Covering the tender new flowers I planted from seed last week…everyone should make it through tonight…fingers crossed.
I think they had me in mind when developing this one Sue, worth looking out for it though.
I was pulling my hair out Donna, well (what little is lef)t Not much damage , turned quite warm again, I expect before too long you will be baking in the heat..
We like to take chances Pam, even when the odds are stacked against us.
Love your beautiful camellia, Alistair. This climate is too cold, unfortunately. You seem to be getting to know your new garden and its conditions well. After all these years, I still find I have a plant in the wrong place sometimes. P. x
Glad you found a solution for your blog issues Alisitair…these can be so irritating. Love Camellias although never see them around here…way too cold for these beauties. Our spring turned to summer and now to fall…hoping we can get some smoother weather for the garden. Hope not much damage was done by the light frost. We are in for the same here tonight after weeks in the high 80s.
I’m not familiar with that particular variety, I’ll watch out for it. Although it sounds more like a psychiatric condition than a plant!
Alberto, I used to feel that way about Magnolia, just didnt grow in Aberdeen.
I had the idea that Camellia would struggle to survive down under. Oh, I came across a catmint last year named (Nepeta nervosa blue moon), flowered for weeks on end and low growing, ideal for front of the border.
Hi Alastair, it’s interesting to read how you are getting to know your new garden. I find when a camellia is happy, it flowers predictably and on and on through the years. I have one that was here when we moved in, and it’s still going strong. glad you sorted out the technical hitch with your site. I hate all that sort of stuff, but technology keeps changing, and I suppose we have to try to keep up.
I am not a big fan of camellias in my garden but this is just because they don’t grow in my soil and climate. On the other hand I love them in other people’s gardens, with those odd flowers that look eternal and so fragile at the same time. Contessa Lavinia Maggi is really beautiful!
Even in a small country its clear that Camellias grow better here than they did back home in Aberdeen.
What a beautiful camellia! I love that Lady Campbell too! That is one of the things I really miss about living down south, all the camellias in the area blooming and the petals falling to form pretty carpets under the bushes. Very few camellias are hardy where I live now. (In fact I have yet to see one up here.) Good thing to know about the morning sun if I ever do find a nice, hardy camellia, though! I hope your website is working well now for you!
Hi Janet, yes the leaves tend to turn yellow when the soil is on the alkaline side. I will really only know at the end of the month if this problem with the bandwidth is sorted out.
Variegation is not to everyone’s liking Deb, I share your view of the subject.
My love of variegation in leaves must extend to flowers, too, as I was immediately smitten with the Comtessa! Camellias do well in our acid soil, as long as they are properly planted. As you said, some take a while before they start flowering. I also really like your Lady Campbell.
Shame about the frost, but that pink looks lovely against the green of the woodwork. I was wondering about trying a white winter flowering camellia in my garden, but I have neutral, almost alkaline soil, so that was a non-starter!
Glad you found a host you feel happy with, for future reference I have started using TSOHost, who do very reasonably packaged hosting, particularly if you don’t need oodles of disk space, and do transfers for free.
Thanks Linnie, Acidic, sure enough. I had to look up hellstrip recently.
Beautiful camellias Alistair! And I looked up ericaceous so now I know that means acidic. (Right?) Seems to be an often-used term in Britain but not so much here. Remarkable we can communicate at all don’t you think? I see you are getting your English garden in hand, as I knew you would. Your camellias are all thriving. I only have one, C. sassanqua “Setsugekka”– which I like for it’s pretty almost winter single white blooms and it’s fragrance. I would kind of like a red one. Lots of good information in this post.
A mature Camellia such as your one is another story Helene. West facing is best although many do well in a North facing position. I did see a number of those really early flowering ones here, in February looking pretty good.
Donna, I am hoping that my site is now permanently fixed
I love Camellias and wish they would grow in my area. Sadly, no. I never changed my WP account and have not had issues. I guess reading of other that have kept me under the .com umbrella.
Hi Alistair, I just love camellias, in all colours and shapes, Debbie is on my wish list for when I get a bigger garden. But having had a very big and mature camellia for the last 13 years I must admit I can’t really see how you can put a camellia ANYWHERE where it won’t catch morning sun, unless you place it against the west facing wall of your house, anywhere else out in the garden and a 6-8 ft camellia will catch sun on one part in the morning, no matter what – like mine does – at least eventually.
I normally deadhead mine a couple of times through the flowering period, which usually takes about 3 months, and get rid of anything frost damaged. Mind you, when I say deadhead it’s not your usual picking or snipping – I take a good grip and give it a vigorous shake, then I brush my whole arm through the branches up and down a couple of times. That usually removes most of what’s dead and dying. With thousands of flowers I can afford to lose a few not ready to drop too! I will miss my grand old lady when I move, no way could I take it with me, it will be left for the next tenant to enjoy 🙂
Rick, Our Pieris was also badly damaged, strangest thing we had less damage in Aberdeen where it is colder. Perhaps the longer periods of warm weather here in April makes them more susceptible to damage even when the frost is light.
Hi Alistair, I love Camellias but suffer from the same problems you do with frost, I have several planted in different parts of the garden and they were all damaged along with Pieris, Rhododendron and worse still all the new foliage on my Hydrangea aspera.
We also had a quince this colour back in Aberdeen. Hope your aloe grows well.
Lady Campbell is the colour of the Japanese quince I left behind. My cuttings didn’t take. Have just planted a coral aloe – we’ll see what colour those flowers come out, altho the coral-edged leaves make it a delightful plant to have in my new garden.
Plenty Camellias around here Angie, hardly see any Rhododendrons though, now thats a shrub that really likes the Aberdeen weather.
It’s not been a good year for the Camellias. All mine are planted to ensure they don’t get early sun too but somehow most of them managed to get caught!
You’ve got yourself a nice collection there Alistair. Spring Festival is a nice one but I also like Lady Campbell.