Camellia

Somehow the car decided to take a detour during my weekly trip to the supermarket, and I ended up at the National Trust's Claremont Landscape Garden. Not wanting to waste the journey I had a coffee (and a naughty fruit scone, though I declined the cream), took 2 laps round the gardens and lake, partook of a warming soup  for lunch and then resumed my trip to complete the weekly shop!

Mid-winter in the UK is rather lacking flowers for BikerBear's Flower Friday Challenge, but I did find some flowering Camellia. These expensive and highly prized plant were introduced to British gardeners in the late18th century and some of the ones at Claremont could be over 175 years old.  This specimen is growing in one of the original beds in a specially built glasshouse, though the glass and building has long since been removed.