Celebrating camellias

There is some cause for joy in this terrible pandemic and election season, and I can always count on my favorite gardens and parks to provide that.   Right on schedule during the past several weeks, splendidly beautiful sasanqua camellias delighted me along the paths I walked the other day, gladdening my heart to see this annual spectacle, this gift of Nature.

A lot of flowers in our area can bloom well into December and January, including numerous varieties of roses, but the camellia thrive in the Fall  and Winter here in Charleston as they do around the South.

That’s the astonishing thing.   I can get out for a walk and pass ancient bushes laden with white, pink and red blooms.  It can be freezing,  and there they are.  Of course, I take many photos of the sansanquas now, and later in the winter, the japonicas.  Magnolia Gardens has an entire section devoted to the cultivation of rare and vintage varieties of camellias.

I’ve photographed them for many years, and each year I manage to find any number of blooms which can only be described as perfection.  It’s hard to imagine that anyone can look at these and other stunning varieties of flowers and not acknowledge that they are part of God’s creation through the evolution of life on this planet.  Their beauty is so exquisite they are small miracles indeed.

Today, I put aside the troubles of the day and celebrate camellias.  I will have months to enjoy them.