Camellia

Great shape I can see its full of blooms do you use a hedge trimmer.

Yes, every year after the blooms are gone my DH takes a hedge trimmer to it.

Absolutely marvellous. On the top of it, I like its shape. Unfortunately, I have 2 camellias, 4 years old and still they look like one small branch :-(

Tank you, I ll have to try it.

This one is probably 40 years old . Do you have any blooms on yours Katarina? I have one 3 years old and it have not bloomed yet.

It responds to hedge trimming well Thrupennybit. We do it usually in early June.

No, as I said in some previous comments, mine did not bloom yet.

Thank you Medowland, some plants just have to be kept under control.

It looks wonderful! It loves your moist climate. There's some large ones in my neighborhood on the north-side of homes. They still get sun-burned every year...sometimes very badly. They still flower from: Nov-April.

I do not know when this starts to bloom because we are out of country for winter but it is always in full boom when we get back in April. Still blooming now. I do not think it would be a good plant for hot and dry weather. We had some hail today. First time since we've lived here. So unusual for this time of the year.

I'm sure the climate there is much better for Camellia than here in San Diego.

That big low off your coast is heading south to here. It's going to bring us cooler weather and a chance of a few shower...which is rare for this time of year. We need any showers we can get, though. The drought here is getting worse...not sure what California will do when the reservoirs completely dry up. California is in uncharted territory.

It is not good situation at the present but the weather is so crazy everywhere in the recent years we never know what will happen from year to year. You might be flooded next year :-) Our friends e-mailed us from Mexico that it was raining there last week. April/May are the driest months there.... it never rains in these two months (until this year)

Like you said: the weather is absolutely crazy everywhere!
Today is was cool and windy with the chance of showers later tonight and tomorrow. It really is unheard of us to have rain this time of year; however, it's not so typical to have middle of summer heat in the middle of winter, also. :>/

Rains are always better then droughts. People are just not able to use energy of water in a right way, as they waste money for less important projects. The Danube had lot of floods in the past, now when we have dam system in Slovakia, during floods in Germany, Austria and Hungary-across which Danube flows - we have only higher level of underground waters.

Katarina:

"Rains are always better then droughts". You're so right!

It sounds like you get a lot of rain, where you live. We typically receive very little rain here in San Diego during our short rainy season. Our rainy season is from: Dec - March. The other months are very dry. The monsoonal flow from July - Sept., sometimes we may receive a few light showers...we typically just get high humidity with very hot temps.