Camellias

Once I started thinking about grafting citrus, I realized that maybe grafting could help with our camellia issue. We have some established camellia trees by the front door, but they're a light pink and the trees are super dweeby looking. It would take years to grow new camellias to the size I'd want them, and in the meantime birdies like to hang out in one of the trees. I don't want to deprive them of their hangout by cutting the trees down and starting over. Maybe I can graft a camellia I like onto the trees that I don't like as well. Did a little research and it turns out that you sure can graft camellias. This is my favorite grafting video.

My favorite camellias are these two from our old house. This first one grows at least three kinds of blooms on the same tree -- solid red, white with deep red stripes and solid white.

This one is the glamorpuss. My favorite shade of pink, with a peony center and occasional splashes of white. I mean, really. Hubba hubba.

So I identified these two and looked for a source, but I finally decided to reach out to the folks who own our old house. They are down to let me take scions from their tree and graft it onto ours!

Before I had that nailed down, though, I went to the local camellia society gathering last weekend to see their camellias and perhaps buy something that I could graft onto our trees. The camellia people let me in during their judging hour because I'd come from some distance...

The camellia show involved various kinds of competitions. I think these were the basic categories and how they worked:

• Single blooms (you present your best bloom of a named variety, and are judged against other peoples' best bloom of that same variety).
• Threes (you present three blooms of a named variety -- not sure how you're judged)
• Fives (same thing, I guess?)
• Three different sizes of three different named varieties by one grower
• Were there competitors for pre-1958 or something? Can't recall

I didn't get as far as buying camellias (they were too busy judging), but they let me take photos.

A table of threes:

 

 Single japonicas. I really like this variety, a variegated Frank Houser

 

Single reticulatas:

 

Singles, all of whose varieties start with the letter F. There were lots of examples of one called Ferris Wheel, the striped guys on the right. The biggest were crazy large, like the size of a small grapefruit.

Three different or three different sizes by one grower. This is a good time to use your second best bloom, since you're going to use your absolute best in competition for singles.

And so ends today's exploration into the world of camellia grafting and shows.