Camellia in bloom now?

[Natty_Dread]

Hi all -- I have a camellia in my southern-facing front yard which has just begun to bloom. In the three years since I planted the bush, it's never had flowers on it this early in the season-- it's always started blooming in December or early January and the blooms have ended up dying on the bush because we've had a bad frost or a snowstorm right as they begin to open. I'm in Alexandria, VA, USDA Zone 7; is this usual? I'm glad it's blooming now because I'll actually be able to appreciate the flowers, just I'm just surprised. Has anyone else had this experience?

Rhonda Alexandria, VA Zone 7

********* Each of us, a cell of awareness imperfect and incomplete Genetic blends with uncertain ends on a fortune-hunt that's far too fleet

[FACE]

Whether or not it is unusual I can't say, but I can say that we had the same thing happen here in the front yard -- full sun -- in August. (In Georgia.)

FACE

[David Ross]

Strange things happen. Right now, I have several spring-flowering plants in bloom: azaleas, raphiolepis, etc. My dwarf kumquat, which usually has two bloom periods -- one in mid-summer and one about 4-6 weeks later -- is in bloom now.

[paghat]

I've more rhody reblooms this season than in most years -- just the occasional flower here & there except for "Lee's Best Purple" which blooms fully twice a year almost every year.

But the camellia season is starting for me right now. I have mainly camelleas of the "sasanqua" type & they bloom in the main from October through January.

-paghat the ratgirl

----- "I wanted to be a Walt Disney villain when I was a child." -John Waters

[Mike Prager]

No, but our forsythia started blooming about two weeks ago. And, of course, Camellia sasanqua is blooming now.

Mike Prager Beaufort, NC (on the coast in zone 8a) (Remove spam traps from email address to reply.)