Camellias have been blooming for a while now. I typically get rather good pictures of them. The pictures are nothing too artistic, of course, and are intended to merely exhibit the floral color and form. A bit of the glossy foliage in the background is nice.
The picture above is not so useful for exhibiting much of the floral characteristics. Even the pink color is muted by the sloppy background and gray sky above. Zooming in would not have corrected the positioning of the flowers. I simply could not get close enough to do any better.
That eave in the lower right corner of the picture is above a two story building. That is where all the blooms of this particular camellia shrub are located. With so much of the lower growth shaded out and gone, this shrub is more like a small tree. The bloom is too high up to be appreciated. The picture below demonstrates what it all looks like without zooming in.
If there were windows facing this big camellia shrub or tree, I would likely prune it only a bit lower, just to keep it below the eave and within view of the windows. Without windows, I know that I really should prune the tall trunks back to what little lower growth remains, in order to promote more growth and bloom closer to ground level where it can be appreciated.
The difficulty I have with pruning it back is that this big camellia shrub or tree is so impressively big and sculptural, and all the glossy foliage looks so good in the foreground of the rich dark brown wall. I do not know what is more important here, the sculptural limbs and rich green foliage that lasts throughout the year, or the colorful but seasonal bloom.
Tony Tomeo 
Some landscape idiot always trims ours after the buds have set, leaving only blooms peeking out from dense foliage…
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Coincidentally, when I got to work this morning (which is my first day of the week), I was informed that a crew that was here yesterday to replace some concrete went to an unrelated area where more concrete will be going LATER, and bulldozed three exquisite camellias! They were in full bloom, and probably would have finished blooming before they needed to be removed. We dug and relocated two that did not get bulldozed, but I expect them to shed their flowers in response to the stress. It is difficult to not be furious about it. To make matters worse, as I was digging the last of the relocated camellias, the bulldozer operator was smoking pot, right out in the open . . . at a Christian conference center. The response to my protest was that “It’s legal.” As if that makes it somehow less offensive to those of us who find it objectionable, and somehow acceptable to operate such machinery while under the influence of such a drug.
Wow! Sorry for the rant.
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Man, I’m sorry about the camellias. Some people are just inexplicable. Booze is legal, too and I doubt he’d drink and operate a bulldozer.
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Well, this is California. One can get a citation and a hefty fine for smoking tobacco too close to a window or doorway, or even in a public place like a beach or park, but it marijuana is total acceptable. If I ask someone to smoke it somewhere else because I find it to be so totally objectionable, I get the lecture about how it is medicinal and that everyone should be using it.
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Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:
This overgrown camellia responded well to renovative pruning, and is actually ready for another phase.
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