The World's Largest Camellia?



Of course it isn't but I marvel at the size of this camellia when I pass it on my way to work. I am not good at judging sizes but I am guessing that it is at least 20 feet tall? It is in the corner of someone's front lawn and you can compare it to the dogwood next to it and the house behind it. It is past it's prime in blooming but look at the number of blooms! I have never seen camellias bloom the way they do here. They just completely cover the bush (or in this case - tree). 

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Open Gardens: The Hyland / Beckman garden

Image
  On the way back from the Wisner/Orloff garden, I stopped at another Open Garden, that of  Bob Hyland and Andrew Beckman. It is located on a hillside overlooking the St. Johns area and nearby Sauvie Island with some nice views of several mountain peaks.  The late afternoon sun was quite harsh and not the ideal situation for good photos. Much of the garden was shaded which helped. A long driveway leading down to the house is flanked by a beautiful border filled with grasses and perennials. I loved this Barberry - I am thinking that it is possibly Berberis darwinii but not certain. Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
Read more

Book review - Desert Gardens of Steve Martino

Image
I have always said that I would be unhappy living in the desert because it is not green enough for me. I still adhere to that belief but I do enjoy looking at photos of desert gardens and the plants that inhabit them are certainly dramatic. I was recently sent the book "Desert Gardens of Steve Martino" by Caren Yglesias to review for Library Journal and I really loved the book. Martino, a Phoenix-born landscape architect, calls himself "an accidental landscape architect". He was fascinated by the desert from a young age when he would explore the surrounding Sonoran Desert on horseback. Later, he majored in architecture and found himself more interested in the outside spaces between buildings and how to use them as expansions of the interior. He became highly interested in native desert plants at a time when other landscape architects considered them nothing but weeds. He questioned why they were using plants that relied on water instead of local plants that thrived ...
Read more

Wednesday Vignette:

Image
I am loving the colors on the Monterey Cypress. This is Cupressus macrocarpa 'Wilma Goldcrest' that I purchased at Xera last spring. It was tiny when I bought it and has grown quite a bit although it is still very small. Wednesday Vignette is hosted by Anna at Flutter and Hum .   Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
Read more