Gloom-busting blooms

Early and white, scented and bright; January camellias like Brushfield’s Yellow make a spring garden, says Peter Dowdall.

When we think of camellias we think spring flowering but actually this is a genus which can offer colour from October through to June depending on the species. The camellia sasanqua types will bloom in the late autumn with some of the blooms being sweetly, if softly, scented and many of the camellia japonica and williamsii varieties flowering from late spring into early summer.

For me, January is the month of the yellow camellias. Now let's be straight about things: Jury’s Yellow and Brushfield’s Yellow are white. If you are expecting yellow in the same way that daffodils are yellow then prepare to be disappointed but believe me the only let down with these varieties is the name. As stately evergreen shrubs that produce masses of white flowers with a slightly off white centre these plants have none to equal them.