by John Richmond © 2006; All Rights Reserved. Winter moves early
into spring in South West England. The climate is mild, the air
moist and clean, and the soils generally acid. This provides a
perfect climate for camellias, the queens of the spring
flowering shrubs. They thrive here. Visit many of the older
established gardens in Devon and Cornwall and you'll see
camellias of tree size, glossy evergreens studded with exotic
flowers. The first western travellers to China and Japan must
have seen these plants as impressive. No wonder they were eager
to bring them into cultivation. Success did not prove easy.
Camellia flowers are so impressively subtropical and appear so
early in the year that the first imports were cosseted in well-
heated greenhouses. They failed, as mine failed when I tried to
grow one as a houseplant. Many of the decorative species and
hybrids are reasonably hardy plants. They like cool winter
conditions. Camellia japonica, the first to be imported, is
rated hardy to -15° C / 5° F - tough enou