There can scarcely be a gardener who doesn’t love this harbinger of spring, the Camellia. How can something so delicate and exotic-looking appear either from December onward (in the balmy south west of England) or as early as February even here in Cumbria? This was the first flower of 2025 and the picture was taken on February 28.

This is one of three we planted some 20 years ago which are adjacent to our ugly garage. They have reached the gutter and would have been larger still if we didn’t have to trim them every year lest they cast shade on the solar panels we have on the garage roof.

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