Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Camellia Sasanqua "Chansonette" (2010)

The first blooms of 2010 opened yesterday on the low-growing camellia (Camellia sasanqua) under the flowering plum tree. This is a variety called "Chansonette." It's been extremely trouble-free and a reliable bloomer. It's done very well even in the hot, dry summers in Santa Rosa with only a small irrigation dripper and no water beyond that. It grows in full shade, but gets some sun at midday in the summer months. It's spread to about four feet across but stayed no more than about two feet high. It usually blooms into January. After ten years living in California again, it still surprises me to see flowers in the middle of winter. Impressions of Ohio winters remain hard to eradicate. Impossible really.