The agapanthus flowers are fading, and the naked ladies (belladonna lilies) are slipping up on tall, leafless stems all over the garden, opening into flesh pink and opulent flowers. That means it's time to plant camellias.
I planted my first camellia bushes in memory of my grandmother "Jannie". Jannie was tall and slim and elegant, and her garden was elegant too, with gravelled paths and stone edges and bush after bush of camellias, chosen so they bloomed from early autumn to early summer, variety after variety, the colours subtly changing, beginning with white, many shades of pink, and finally the red.
Somehow I associate camellia bushes with pearls, which Jannie almost always wore - I wouldn't have been surprised to see them under her dressing gown - and silver salt spoons - one never sprinkled salt onto one's food, but took a small spoonful for the side of the plate. Jannie would then give me a lesson in how to clean tiny silver salt spoons...
I don't wear pearls, nor elegant dresses - my body is not built for "elegant". Nor do I have a silver salt spoon. But I could grow camellias for the woman who bought her granddaughter every children's book the new Australian Children's Book Council recommended, followed by every book of Australian poetry she could find, along with the works of Robbie Burns, of course, for Jannie was as Scots as she was Australian. I owe Jannie much of my education as a writer.
So in went the camellias, accidentally in the perfect spot, as back then I knew nothing about camellias. They went in downhill from the chook house, in the dappled shade of the casuarinas, and grew and bloomed and were so stunning in mid-winter when the days were short and grey that I planted more, and more ... and finally, learned all I could about camellias.
Camellias have three major virtues, apart from being elegant. Firstly, they grow in shady spots where nothing much else will give bloom after bloom. You can grow sasanqua camellias in full sun, but even they are happier with dappled afternoon shade. Want to cover a gloomy side fence? Plant a hedge of camellias. Camellias adore being hedged.
Secondly, they flower for months, as in winter flowers tend to last longer than summer blooms. We now have camellias in various spots all around the house, so in winter you can't turn around without seeing a bush in flagrant bloom.
Thirdly, camellias are Great Survivors. Most of ours lost their leaves during the three years of drought and no watering - the drought coincided with some bad surgery- and then three months of major bushfire winds and heat and smoke. Ex-camellias, I thought, looking at the dead twigs and dry stems.
But come the rains, about a third of them suddenly put out leaves. Others stayed moribund for over 18 months before suddenly deciding it was time to leaf and bud again. Never underestimate a camellia.
Last autumn, winter and spring was the most camellia filled season I have ever seen, as if each once almost dead camellia was competing to see who could be the most spectacular. The single-petalled ones seemed to bloom for month after month. Others were so fat and floriferous they weighed down the branches, and people exclaimed when they saw me arrive with a bunch of them. I have never grown so many "wow!" flowers in my life.
This winter won't be as spectacular, I suspect - nor as wet. Camellias obviously love being fed a lot - all that accumulated leaf little and wombat droppings from the drought, plus the rain that kept on falling. If you want whopper flowers, feed and water well.
Camellias are also easy for amateurs to grow, though once yours start really blooming you may fall in love with them and learn how to truly make them happy, and where to find scented camellias, or prostrate camellias to cover banks or blooms so large that three fill a decent size vase, or the old-fashioned kind where the flowers actually last in a vase for a couple of weeks before they drop their petals - others need to be floated in bowls or arranged with florist foam to help them stand straight under the weight of petals.
First, find "the spot" - dappled shade and rich soil. Second, feed and water, and if you are uncertain about feeding with home-made compost, hen manure etc, you can buy bags of conveniently labelled "camellia food" to get you and your bushes started.
Thirdly, patience. Camellias are, in fact, very like my grandmother Jannie. They like Things To Be Done A Certain Way, and will not like being moved from their nursery and their pot into your garden. They will sulk for a year or two and do nothing much, then double in size in year three, and double again each year after that till finally you realise you don't have camellia bushes, but small camellia trees.
Though maybe if I had worn high heels, stockings, slim skirts and pearls to pick and appreciate my camellias they may not have sulked at all. It's worth having a go, even if you're a bloke. Perhaps just the pearls would do...
But plant them now. Camellias planted in late summer will grudgingly give you enough flowers to make you smile each time you see them in winter. If you plant them now, in five years' time you will have garden glory, and in 20 years there will be a tree, or 20 camellia trees if you are lavish.
Begin a sentence with "the world needs" and you can find a thousand ways to finish it. But "The world needs more beauty" is an excellent sentence, and if you plant at least six camellias out the front, you will delight all who pass your home in winter too.
The world needs... cheering up. Happiness. More trees to soak up the CO2 and shade the world. And definitely more camellias in Canberra gardens.
Australian Native Plant Sale
As well as planting camellias, it is a most excellent idea to put in at least 20 native shrubs that will thrive and make the birds ecstatic in our Canberra climate. The Growing Friends, a sub-group of the Friends of the Australian National Botanic Gardens, will be holding their Autumn native plant sale on Saturday March 4.
This boutique sale will be from 8.30am to 11am, unless sold out earlier. It will be held within the gardens in the Banksia Centre carpark.
Most of the 1200 or more pots will be on sale for $6; some larger pots will be available for $10.
All plant material was sourced from plants in the Gardens.
Growing Friends are all volunteers and sale proceeds go to support the Gardens. If you want fabulous plants at bargain prices which will add heaps to the National Bird and Human Happiness Index for Canberra, head there early, before some other gardener nicks the best buys. You have been warned - there will be some fabulous finds for those canny enough to get themselves there.
This week I am:
- Planting French tarragon, because a friend asked me if I had any, and I remembered I had neither grown any or cooked with any for several years. Tarragon is a subtle and most elegant tasting herb, which I am sure Jannie would have approved of and probably grew - she was an excellent cook. Tarragon is basically green, so you don't notice it, but add it to a sauce, or bung it inside a roasting chook with butter and an onion and ... wow.
- Glorying in the first paradisical scent of great golden spires of ginger lilies.
- Trying to remember to water and feed the spinach and silver beet and other greens for winter.
- Eating the first Jonathon apple of the season at least a week or three too early, but I love them too much to wait, and Possum X had begun to munch them, so I should too.
- Giving my indoor plants a holiday in the dappled shade of the cumquat tree, where they will get rain and native predators will clean up the scale or aphids that have been lurking on the leaves indoors.
- Enjoying the massed white flowering on the native Bursaria, also known as "thorny bush", which will leave prickles in your fingers if you try to prune it and which small birds adore to nest in. This massed blooming may well be a harbinger of a hot summer for next year.
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