The rarest treasure in the garden

A golden camellia – and it’s been a long wait.

Our garden is less than a quarter of an acre, but many years ago we became so invested in camellias we ended up with more than 250 of them. Heavily pruned – obviously. We exhibited at shows, became camellia judges, wrote for horticultural publications, generally gained a great deal of pleasure from these beautiful flowers and the like-minded people we met from all over the world because of them.

One of the varieties we bought was Camellia Chrysantha – a golden variety from a botanical institute in China. Year after year we looked forward to flowers – as did many of our Camellia Society friends. No flowers. We all decided we’d been duped as the years rolled on and on and on.

But this morning we found them – clear yellow flowers as promised. A bit battered because they’d fallen to the ground, but there are more buds to follow so hopefully we’ll get some better photos.