Camellia in Bud...

Here on the coast of North Carolina by the time December comes most everything has gone by in the garden, but now the camellias are just starting to bud and will soon produce breathtaking flowers all through the winter. This is a very large, very old camellia that has grown into a sizable tree and the red blooms are just gorgeous. I thought I would start with a bud and photograph it throughout all of it's stages. This is a very early very tight bud so it will be lovely to watch it soften, open, and come into full bloom. The flowers last for a very long time if they are not picked and if you do pick them they are beautiful floated in a bowl of water with little votive candles all around. Magic is so easy to create...