Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops within the US. For catalogues and announcements of local events, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate whether you are interested in snowdrops, hellebores, and/or hostas. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
Unnamed camellia developed by William Ackerman who has hybridized many wonderful fall-blooming camellias for the U.S. National Arboretum. For an article about his camellia introductions, click here.
Last December I wrote two popular articles about fall-blooming camellias. Fall-blooming Camellias Part 1 explains that these camellias are fully hardy and easy to grow in the mid-Atlantic U.S. and shows photos of my plants. It also has links to more information. Part 2 covered my visit to the gardens of camellia expert Charles Cresson in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, whose camellia collection includes over 60 specimens. This week I visited Charles’s gardens again, about a month earlier than last time, to view and photograph more camellias (I am an addict now). In this article, I want to share that visit with you. On Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, I will show photos of my own plants in bloom.
Camellia x ‘Snow Flurry’ is one of the earliest flowering fall-bloomers of the Ackerman hybrids with an arching habit and anemone to peony form flowers.
During my time in Charles’s garden, I revisited some of my favorite camellias pictured in my post last December, including ‘Snow Flurry’ above and the cranberry-flowered camellia and ‘Winter’s Snowman’ pictured below.
Cranberry-flowered camellia (not introduced for sale): fall-blooming camellias are loaded with buds right now and will continue to bloom over the next two months, depending on the weather. Even if the open flowers are frozen during a cold spell, the remaining buds will open when the weather warms.
A close up of the cranberry-flowered camellia pictured above (not introduced)
The large, semi-double flowers of the Ackerman hybrid Camellia x ‘Winter’s Snowman’ really stand out in November and December. ‘Winter’s Snowman’ has an upright, narrow habit.
Camellia x ‘Winter’s Snowman’: If you look at my post from last December, you will see that ‘Winter’s Snowman’ can have both the semi-double flower pictured there and the anemone form flower above. Both are gorgeous.
Because I visited earlier in the season this year, I was able to photograph seven additional camellias:
Camellia x ‘Winter’s Star’ is an October and November blooming Ackerman hybrid with single flowers and an upright form.
This is a lovely semi-double white camellia hybridized by Charles but not introduced for sale or named.
Camellia x ‘Winter’s Interlude’ is a November and December blooming Ackerman hybrid with anemone form flowers and an upright spreading habit.
This camellia, which Charles grew from cuttings given to him by North Carolina State University, is very beautiful, but has not been introduced for sale.
A close up of the lovely pale pink flower on the North Carolina State camellia pictured above.
Camellia x ‘Moon Festival’ has unusually large flowers with a crepe paper texture, but is hardy only to zone 7.
Charles and I both love this unnamed Ackerman hybrid pictured above and at the top of the post. We were thinking of potential names like “Winter’s Halo” or “Inner Glow”. Do you think it should be introduced?
Camellia x ‘Carolina Moonmist’ was developed by the J.C. Raulston Arboretum of NCSU with single pink flowers.
Camellia x ‘Carolina Moonmist’: Charles feels that this camellia is too late-blooming for our area because many of the buds won’t open before it is too cold. ‘Winter’s Star’ is a much better alternative.
I tried to remain focused on camellias for the whole visit, but the garden is so beautiful that some other plants snuck in, and I have to share them:
Fall-blooming hardy cyclamen seedling, C. hederifolium, growing at the base of a massive tree trunk.
Chinese holly, Ilex cornuta
Japanese maple, Acer palmatum ‘Ornatum’
The fall color of star magnolia, M. stellata.
The fall color of bald cypress, Taxodium distichum.
We are so lucky in this part of the world to have such massive trees with gorgeous fall color.
Enjoy, Carolyn
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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 