Gosh, Nadia has been on about this Camellia yunnanensis since November, why is that bud not opening, she read it's supposed to bloom in November. Well, it's finally open, and it's not a great photo, but it's the only one I got half in focus and it was the point of the visit, so I'm posting it. It was way up there. While I'm doing not-in-focus, here's another that I have to post because Nadia expected me to remember that I was all excited about this and I remembered nothing about it. Eurya japonica. I see that we said a lot about it last December. At the time I was keen to see if it was a male plant. No, the photo is just enough in focus to see that it's female, but not malodorous yet, to us anyway. It used to be in the Camellia family (Theaceae), now is in Pentaphylacaceae. My favourite camellia yesterday was C. japonica 'Okan'. We think we had not seen Rhododendron rex subsp. arizelum 'Brodick' with flowers before. This one is tagged and on the database as: Rhododendron arizelum 'Brodick'. Ron B told us in 2012 that it's a synonym of the name above. Rhododendron falconeri [Edited by wcutler 2014apr17]See Ron B's note saying this should be R. Hodgsonii, shown below. That would explain why it looks just like it. Rhododendron hodgsonii We really liked this Rhododendron dendrocharis.
Notice the cold damage to the Camellia yunnanensis - I've been keeping one I bought from Nuccio's near Los Angeles in a greenhouse, where it flowers in a one gallon bought. The flowers smell of apricots. The Rhodododendron falconeri and R. hodgsonii both belong to the latter species. In addition to the strong coloring of the corollas it appears in these views they are without spots in each case.
We saw a lot more flowers on the Camellia yunnanensis on April 15. The Eurya japonica has finished blooming, but I did get a flower closer to being in focus. I'm assuming the fruits in the first photo are from last year. I don't remember noticing a fragrance or odor from either of these flowers.
