Next to the rose, no flower* is more beautiful or more useful than the
camellia. It may readily be so managed that its natural season of
blooming shall be from October to March, thus coming in at a time when
roses can hardly be had without forcing. In every quality, with the
single exception of scent, the camellia may be pronounced the equal of
the rose. It can be used in all combinations or for all purposes for
which roses can be employed. In form and color it is probably more
perfect, and fully as brilliant. It is equally or more durable, either
on the plant or as a cut flower. It is a little dearer to buy, and
perhaps slightly more difficult to cultivate; but like most plants the
camellia has crucial periods in its life, when it needs special
treatment. That given, it may be grown with the utmost ease; that
withheld, its culture becomes precarious, or a failure. The camellia
is so hardy that it will live in the open air in many parts of Great
Britain, and herein lies a danger to many cultivators. Because it is
quite or almost hardy, they keep it almost cool. This is all very well
if the cool treatment be not carried to extremes, and persisted in all
the year round. Camellias in a dormant state will live and thrive in
any temperature above the freezing point, and will take little or no
hurt if subjected to from 3°-4° below it, or a temperature of 27°
Fahr.
* Transcriber's Note: Original "flour".
They will also bloom freely in a temperature of 40°, though 45° suits
them better. Hence, during the late summer and early autumn it is
hardly possible to keep camellias too cool either out of doors or in.
They are also particularly sensitive to heat just before the
flower-buds begin to swell in late autumn or winter; a sudden or
sensible rise of temperature at that stage sends the flower-buds off
in showers. This is what too often happens, in fact, to the camellias
of amateurs. No sooner do the buds begin to show then a natural
impatience seizes the possessor's of well-budded camellias to have the
flowers opened. More warmth, a closer atmosphere, is brought to bear
upon them, and down fall the buds in showers on stage or floor--the
chief cause of this slip between the buds and the open flowers being a
rise of temperature. A close or arid atmosphere often leads to the
same results. Camellias can hardly have too free a circulation of air
or too low a temperature. Another frequent cause of buds dropping
arises from either too little or too much water at the roots. Either a
paucity or excess of water at the roots should lead to identical
results. Most amateurs overwater their camellias during their
flowering stages. Seeing so many buds expanding, they naturally rush
to the conclusion that a good deal of water must be used to fill them
to bursting point. But the opening of camellia buds is less a
manufacture than a mere development, and the strain on the plant and
drain on the roots is far less during this stage than many suppose. Of
course the opposite extreme of over-dry roots must be provided
against, else this would also cause the plants to cast off their buds.
But our object now is less to point out how buds are to be developed
into fully expanded flowers than to show how they were to be formed in
plenty, and the plants preserved in robust health year after year. One
of the simplest and surest modes of reaching this desirable end is to
adopt a system of semi-tropical treatment for two months or so after
flowering. The moment or even before the late blooms fade, the plants
should be pruned if necessary. Few plants bear the knife better than
camellias, though it is folly to cut them unless they are too tall or
too large for their quarters or have grown out of form. As a rule
healthy camellias produce sufficient or even a redundancy of shoots
without cutting back; but should they need pruning, after flowering is
the best time to perform the operation.
During the breaking of the tender leaves and the growth of the young
shoots in their first stages, the plant should be shaded from direct
sunshine, unless, indeed, they are a long way from the glass, when the
diffusion and dispersion of the rays of light tone down or break their
scorching force; few young leaves and shoots are more tender and
easily burned than camellia, and scorching not only disfigures the
plants, but also hinders the formation of fine growths and the
development of flower-buds.
The atmosphere during the early season of growth may almost touch
saturation. It must not fail to be genial, and this geniality of the
air must be kept up by the surface-sprinkling of paths, floors,
stages, walls, and the plants themselves at least twice a day.
With the pots or border well drained it is hardly possible to
overwater the roots of camellias during their period of wood-making.
The temperature may range from 50° to 65° during most of the period.
As the flower-buds form, and become more conspicuous, the tropical
treatment may become less and less tropical, until the camellias are
subjected to the common treatment of greenhouse or conservatory plants
in summer. Even at this early stage it is wise to attend to the
thinning of the buds. Many varieties of camellias--notably that most
useful of all varieties, the double white--will often set and swell
five or ten times more buds than it ought to be allowed to carry.
Nothing is gained, but a good deal is lost, by allowing so many embryo
flower-buds to be formed or partially developed. It is in fact far
wiser to take off the majority of the excess at the earliest possible
point, so as to concentrate the strength of the plant into those that
remain.
As it is, however, often a point of great moment to have a succession
of camellia flowers for as long a period as possible on the same
plants, buds of all sizes should be selected to remain. Fortunately,
it is found in practice that the plants, unless overweighted with
blooms, do not cast off the smaller or later buds in their efforts to
open their earlier and larger ones. With the setting, thinning, and
partial swelling of the flower-buds the semi-tropical treatment of
camellias must close; continued longer, the result would be their
blooming out of season, or more probably their not blooming at all.
The best place for camellias from the time of setting their
flower-buds to their blooming season is a vexed question, which can
hardly be said to have been settled as yet. They may either be left in
a cool greenhouse, or placed in a shaded, sheltered position in the
open air. Some of the finest camellias ever seen have been placed in
the open air from June to October. These in some cases have been stood
behind south, and in others behind west walls. Those facing the east
in their summer quarters were, on the whole, the finest, many of them
being truly magnificent plants, not a few of them having been imported
direct from Florence at a time when camellias were far less grown in
England than now.
In all cases where camellias are placed in the open air in summer,
care will be taken to place the pots on worm proof bases, and to
shield the tops from direct sunshine from 10 to 4 o'clock. If these
two points are attended to, and also shelter from high winds, it
matters little where they stand. In all cases it is well to place
camellias under glass shelter early in October, less for fear of cold
than of saturating rains causing a sodden state of the soil in the
pots.
While adverting, however, to the safety and usefulness of placing
camellias in the open air in summer, it must not be inferred that this
is essential to the successful culture; it is, in fact, far otherwise,
as the majority of the finest camellias in the country are planted out
in conservatories with immovable roofs. Many such houses are, however,
treated to special semi-tropical treatment as has been described, and
are kept as cool and open as possible after the flower-buds are fairly
set, so that the cultural and climatic conditions approximate as
closely as possible to those here indicated.
Soil and seasons of potting may be described as vexed questions in
camellia culture. As to the first, some affect pure loam, others peat
only, yet more a half and half of both, with a liberal proportion of
gritty sand, or a little smashed charcoal or bruised bones as porous
or feeding agents, or both. Most growers prefer the mixture, and as
good camellias are grown in each of its constituents, it follows
without saying that they may also be well grown in various proportions
of both.
Under rather than over potting suits the plants best, and the best
time is doubtless just before they are about to start into fresh
growth, though many good cultivators elect to shift their plants in
the late summer or autumn, that is, soon after the growth is
finishing, and the flower-buds fairly and fully set for the next
season. From all which it is obvious that the camellia is not only
among the most useful and showy, but likewise among the most
accommodating of plants.
Under good cultivation it is also one of the cleanest, though when
scab gets on it, it is difficult to get rid of it. Mealy-bugs also
occasionally make a hurried visit to camellias when making their
growth, as well as aphides. But the leaves once formed and advanced to
semi-maturity are too hard and leathery for such insects, while they
will bear scale being rubbed off them with impunity. But really
well-grown camellias, as a rule, are wholly free from insect pests,
and their clean, dark, glossy leaves are only of secondary beauty to
their brilliant, exquisitely formed, and many sized flowers.--_D.T.,
The Gardeners' Chronicle._
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