Camellia

“ He at once inspected the rainbow camellia, and found a blossom missing, upon which evidence he had given Eliza in charge for theft.
Another gardener proved that no buds were wanting when he saw the plant half an hour before Eliza's visit. He was followed by the President of the Horticultural Society, who stated that outside China, to which the species was indigenous, there was no rainbow camellia in existence. The bud produced in court could only have been taken from the Foxton greenhouse. ”

“ As she spoke, Arsène regarded Madame de Piennes with a fixed and almost spiteful look, which caused her to drop her eyes involuntarily. There was a long silence, broken only by the oppressed breathing of the invalid. Madame de Piennes had a confused recollection of an incident in regard to a camellia. One day, when she was dining with Madame Aubrée, Max had said to her that his aunt had been congratulating him upon his birthday, and asked her to give him a bouquet also. She had laughingly taken a camellia from her hair and given it to him. ”

“ They possessed both rainbow camellias, and, warned by the trickery of George and Eliza, watched the plants with renewed vigilance. I do not think that any one else will have the chance of stealing a "lip of the Foxton fetich, but should a third rainbow camellia make its appearance in the market, old Bendel is quite resolved not to be hoodwinked a second time. He often regrets that he did not give Eliza six months, but is now too late, for the conspirators are now engaged in farming at the Antipodes. They ought to rear a rainbow camellia if only to remind them of their iniquity. ”

“ In its native land the camellia grows in woods, and hence a certain degree of shade is favorable to its prosperity; but we do not need heavy rafters and a century of dirt to modify the sunlight, because that can be accomplished by some cheap and respectable shading, the employment of which will really add to the comfort of the camellia house when the sun is shining brightly. Camellias, azaleas, and rhododendrons make their new growth quickly, and usually show a bristling of the tender green of the rising shoots before the latest of their flowers have expanded. ”

“ This variety of the Camellia Japonica, is of the same date in our gardens, as the double white, and was introduced through the same medium. As yet this plant is found in but very few collections, and is sold at a very high price; not being of free growth, few cuttings, or grafts can be obtained. ”

“ The best place for camellias from the time of setting their flower-buds to their blooming season is a vexed question, which can hardly be said to have been settled as yet. They may either be left in a cool greenhouse, or placed in a shaded, sheltered position in the open air. Some of the finest camellias ever seen have been placed in the open air from June to October. ”

“ Most amateurs overwater their camellias during their flowering stages. Seeing so many buds expanding, they naturally rush to the conclusion that a good deal of water must be used to fill them to bursting point. But the opening of camellia buds is less a manufacture than a mere development, and the strain on the plant and drain on the roots is far less during this stage than many suppose. Of course the opposite extreme of over-dry roots must be provided against, else this would also cause the plants to cast off their buds. ”

“ To judge of the heinousness of Eliza's offense, it is necessary to state that the Horticultural Society of Foxton is the sole owner of the famous rainbow camellia. The unique plant had been brought from China many years ago by a vagrant Foxtonian, and was the only one in existence on this side of the world. The Foxton Society prided itself on the possession of this rarity, the more so as such possession excited the envy of all rival societies. Of these many had attempted to beg, borrow, buy, or steal slips of the plant in order to raise rainbow camellias on their own account ”

“ The camellia is so hardy that it will live in the open air in many parts of Great Britain, and herein lies a danger to many cultivators. Because it is quite or almost hardy, they keep it almost cool. This is all very well if the cool treatment be not carried to extremes, and persisted in all the year round. Camellias in a dormant state will live and thrive in any temperature above the freezing point, and will take little or no hurt if subjected to from 3°-4° below it, or a temperature of 27° Fahr. ”

“ In the Southern States the Camellia can be raised with not more than ordinary care; at the North it must be considered entirely a green-house plant, and as such will always be highly prized. We are often asked how it should be cared for as a house-plant, and to all such, in the northern part of the country, where it is necessary to maintain good fires in warm houses for several months of the year, we have no hesitation in saying, let it alone, do not expend care and labor where there is so little prospect of reward. ”

“ Camellias.—The Camellia is a plant which requires abundance of water, and is yet soon killed by suffering stagnant moisture to remain about the roots. When grown in pots there should be abundant drainage; that is, the pots should be more than a quarter filled with potshreds. The soil should be peat earth, mixed earth, and sand; and the plants should be potted high, so as to let the collar of the plant be quite above the rim of the pot. ”

“ Camellias seldom do well in pots, except when they are very small, as, when they attain a tolerable size, the flower-buds are very apt to fall off without expanding. The best mode of growing camellias is, therefore, to plant them in the free soil of a conservatory, taking care that some creeping plant is trained along the rafters over their heads, as they do not like to be exposed to too much sun, unless they have also a great deal of air, and are frequently and regularly watered. The soil for camellias should be peat mixed with a little sandy loam. ”

“ You see—he has met Camellia before. He knows how she will be looking when she comes down. He admires Camellia very much, and he might possibly feel a little odd—in tennis flannels——"
"It's queer," murmured the Philosopher. "But perhaps I'd better not be behind in the procession, even if I wilt my collar." He fingered lovingly the soft, rolled-over collar of his white shirt, with its loose-knotted tie, and sighed again. Then he moved toward the stairs.
We were all on the porch when Camellia came down. The Gay Lady had put on a white muslin—the finest, simplest thing. ”

“ The court was filled with infuriated members of the Horticultural Society who wished Eliza to be forthwith hanged and quartered. It was commonly reported that my client had not only picked the flower but had also stolen a slip of the plant, which she designed to sell to a rival society. Believing that Eliza thus intended to rob Foxton of the glory of solely possessing the rainbow camellia, the horticulturists thought no punishment too severe for so abandoned a creature. ”

“ As the flower-buds form, and become more conspicuous, the tropical treatment may become less and less tropical, until the camellias are subjected to the common treatment of greenhouse or conservatory plants in summer. Even at this early stage it is wise to attend to the thinning of the buds. Many varieties of camellias—notably that most useful of all varieties, the double white—will often set and swell five or ten times more buds than it ought to be allowed to carry. Nothing is gained, but a good deal is lost, by allowing so many embryo flower-buds to be formed or partially developed. ”

“ These grow well as bushes, specimens of the first-named being sometimes 10 feet in height and as much in diameter. There is much confusion between this genus and Metrosideros floribunda. Callistemons are to be found in many gardens.
Camellia reticulata.—This is hardy, but rarely flowers satisfactorily in the open except in the south-west, where it is grown both against walls and as a bush plant. It is by far the finest of the Camellias, bearing lovely, pink, semi-double flowers 6 inches in diameter, with bright-yellow, spreading stamens. ”

“ Trees or shrubs, with simple alternate leaves, without stipules. Flowers perfect, regular, hypogynous; sepals and petals 5, imbricated in the bud; stamens numerous; anthers 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; pistil of 3—5 united carpels; ovary 3—5-celled; styles as many as the cells of the ovary, partly united. Fruit capsular; embryo with large cotyledons.
The Camellia family with eighteen genera is principally confined to the tropics of the New World and to southern and eastern Asia. ”

“ Early in autumn, however, when the flower-buds begin to swell, the glasses should be put on and the house kept warm, the plants being regularly watered morning and evening, as, if the watering be neglected a single day, or if stagnant water be suffered to remain about the roots, the flower-buds will be sure to drop off [Pg 209] without expanding. Camellias do not require frequent repotting. Small camellias are generally shifted only once in two years, and large ones, that is, those above five feet high, not oftener than once in three or four years. ”

“ Prepare well-drained borders or stations with a foot depth of rough material, such as broken bricks or tiles and two feet depth of good hazel loam full of fibre chopped up to the size of a man's fist and mixed with a sixth part of old bricks broken to the same size. In such a border camellias will grow grandly if the atmospheric conditions are right. The subjoined rough sketch shows how camellias are planted in the house of a cultivator who supplies Covent Garden Market with the double white camellias from October to February. ”

“ At every turn we seem to meet some acquaintance of Mousmé’s, who keeps up a continuous series of bows and nods and smiles.
The grove of giant camellias, camphor-wood trees, and cryptomerias stretch out like a vast roof, the camellias covered with a wealth of blood-red blossoms which, falling in continuous showers in the vibrating air, form a crimson carpet under the feet. Even the dark recesses are luminous with the flood of light which streams from the lanterns and brilliantly illuminated interiors of the tea-houses. ”

“ The time for shifting camellias is just when they have done flowering, before they are beginning to send out their young shoots. Great care must be taken when they are repotted not to bruise the roots, as they are very easily injured. ”

“ Mealy-bugs also occasionally make a hurried visit to camellias when making their growth, as well as aphides. But the leaves once formed and advanced to semi-maturity are too hard and leathery for such insects, while they will bear scale being rubbed off them with impunity. But really well-grown camellias, as a rule, are wholly free from insect pests, and their clean, dark, glossy leaves are only of secondary beauty to their brilliant, exquisitely formed, and many sized flowers.—D.T., The Gardeners' Chronicle. ”

“ The best Camellias for planting out of doors in the open air are those which bloom late and start late into growth, such, for instance, as Chandleri elegans or Anemonæflora; the varieties with broad roundish leaves appear to grow in more robust fashion than those having narrow pointed ones with a serrated edge, though the latter will make sometimes very compact bushes. It is possible that the sorts with dark-red flowers are hardier than those with pink. ”

“ Those facing the east in their summer quarters were, on the whole, the finest, many of them being truly magnificent plants, not a few of them having been imported direct from Florence at a time when camellias were far less grown in England than now. ”

“ This is what too often happens, in fact, to the camellias of amateurs. No sooner do the buds begin to show then a natural impatience seizes the possessor's of well-budded camellias to have the flowers opened. More warmth, a closer atmosphere, is brought to bear upon them, and down fall the buds in showers on stage or floor—the chief cause of this slip between the buds and the open flowers being a rise of temperature. A close or arid atmosphere often leads to the same results. Camellias can hardly have too free a circulation of air or too low a temperature. ”

“ Few plants bear the knife better than camellias, though it is folly to cut them unless they are too tall or too large for their quarters or have grown out of form. As a rule healthy camellias produce sufficient or even a redundancy of shoots without cutting back ”

“ White camellias were far more expensive. Botho, for his part, was satisfied, declined to have more flowers shown him and only asked whether he could not have a wreath of immortelles in addition to the wreath of fresh flowers. ”

“ We should also bear in mind that distinct varieties, and even distinct species,—as in the case of peaches, nectarines, and apricots,—of certain roses and camellias,— although separated by a vast number of generations from any progenitor in common, and although cultivated under diversified conditions, have yielded by bud-variation closely analogous varieties. ”

“ Not that Mary thought Mr. Perior nobody. To her he was everybody; but that knowledge was her painful joy, a perception lifting her above Camelia. Camelia judged by the world’s gross standards, and, by those standards, she must stoop in loving Perior.
That Camelia should stoop in the world’s eyes, that Camelia should do anything but soar, were unimaginable things. So her ignorance made her knowledge more bitter. The man she loved, adored,—her bleached, starved nature spreading every flower, stretching every tendril, her ideal and her rapture towards him,—that man did not see her, even. ”