Camellia 'Donation'

Siris
I have Debbie also flowers early, colour showing low down but no buds on the top half squirrels have striped them all off leaving the shredded buds on the ground,they destroy some each year but never seen half the bush stripped before .
Bring on the cull they are talking about. apparently there are 3.5 million of the grey in the UK ,think I have the half million here.
My moan for the day.

Such a treat.....mine are not open yet.

What a ray of sunshine on this dark, windy, miserable day. Beautiful.

Such a pretty one....ours have been flowering for about three weeks, but our neighbour has got all our flowers lol

Brian, loads of buds on the ground, wind and cold I think, definitely not squirrels, they don't move too far from the recreation ground, fingers crossed.
Dd, sheltered from those sea breezes.
Thanks, Thorney and Homebird.

Stunning, lucky you

I inherited a pink one. It was planted in full sun and very chlorotic so had to be moved ...twice..and I thought it was dead, but no..its flowering now. Pretty sure its Debbie. Tried to take pics today but too wingy and they all came out blurred.

Karen, Debbie has obviously rewarded you for your attention to her needs, and early for Scotland?

Yes, I supposeit is a little early. I cant remember when they start here tbh. These are the kinds of things I forget easily!

Karen, If you put a pic on Gou when plants first start blooming, you can look back at the date it flowered the previous year(s). I am finding that a very useful almanac.

Good thinking! :)

Karen, January 31st 2016 this Camellia had masses of flowers blooming, so at least 3 weeks later this year.

that's quite a marked difference.

Same here...... much later, my photos go back to 2008, and dated which is very useful, for arranging garden visits...

Dd, Maybe you have come unstuck with opening your garden earlier this year, as the plants seem to be blooming later.

Siris we are not opening early, it is late the last day of July and the first day of August, the latest we have ever opened!! so it's going to be a challenge, because we won't have the roses and the clematis......

Sorry Dd, I do have your open day pic in my Favourites section, just didn't refer to it. You will have to have plenty of plants in pots, colourful leaved plants.

No problem Sirs, hopefully the plants in the pots will still be worth looking at!! that's what we hope to do, and we do have the Dahlias and the Dayliies, we wanted our regular visitors to see the garden at a different time of the year...