Such show-offs ! Early Eastern Shore of Virginia pink camellias with blazing gold centers, nestled among leaves of deep, deep green.
I’m not sure what it is about the first blossoms of Spring that I find so exciting, invigorating actually. We have such a moderate climate, 4 mild seasons, here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia so it’s not as if we have suffered through 5 months of the miserable freezing weather that folks to the north and mid-west have endured. After all, the temperature here is going to be nearly 70 degrees today while a customer who just visited from Connecticut reported that it was snowing when they left to come down here last Friday ! And most of our winter days are sunny and pretty mild. So really, bad weather is not the reason that seeing the camellias begin to bloom puts a smile on my face every year, but smile I do.
Throughout Bay Creek Golf Resort, masses of red and pink camellias have begun their annual Spring Show, delighting property owners and guests.
My ” Camellia Watch” starts not too long after New Year’s– about the middle of January I start to think, well– the camellias will be blooming pretty soon. And by the middle of February I am truly longing for the bright reds and deep pinks of the very first flowers. Near our Machipongo office we have a huge bush, at least 30 maybe even 40 years old, which seems to have literally nearly a thousand blossoms every year, in a very pale, delicate shade of pink. I have several at home, both the fall blooming as well as the spring blooming, but they are still small as camellias are slow growers. Number Three Daughter who lives in Cheriton, a tiny town about 5 minutes from Cape Charles, has at least 10 amazing spring blooming camellias. Their house was built about 1925 so their plants are fairly old and quite large, really more like trees than bushes, unbelievably spectacular when they flower. She has one variety which is quite unusual, a variegated red and white, a late spring bloomer, and it puts on a real show every year ! ( I’ll post a picture when it blooms, it’s worth seeing if you love flowers.) One of my favorite places to see masses and masses of blooming camellias is at Bay Creek Golf Resort in Cape Charles, Virginia, which has just amazing landscaping throughout. The roads are built with one-way lanes and wide medians separate the two lanes. The medians are lushly landscaped with a huge variety of showy plants that bloom throughout the spring and fall and the colorful “Knock-out” variety roses which bloom here from early spring until very late fall. Needless to say, the camellias there are simply gorgeous, massed under tall pines and hardwoods. ( One of the benefits of buying a home at Bay Creek is that the landscaping throughout is so beautiful, it’s just eye candy all the way home ! ) So, it’s official ! The robins are here, a few gold finches have already been seen and the brightly colored flowers of camellia japonica have stamped their imprimatur upon the landscape. Spring has sprung on Virginia’s Eastern Shore ! P.S. Check out www.easternshoremastergardeners.com for some great gardening tips on gardening on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
