Bloom Day #2: Valentine Camellias

Years ago when we bought this house Mr. Cardui and I took a trek to Nuccio's in Altadena to procure Interesting Camellias. We bought two small bushes and a tiny tree to go along with the large (30 year old or more) existing trees on the property. I proceeded to plant them in the wrong spots but they have persisted in spite of that. This year two of them have finally come into their own with tons of flowers, great foliage and graceful branching. Sadly I don't remember their names. The pink and red stripey one is a shrub growing along my decrepit north side fence; the tiny white blossoms decorate a miniature tree that stands nearby.








A fair number of honeybees were visiting the old pink camellias (also unnamed) as well as the striped single. But a lot of them seemed to be scouting around the flowers and not stopping to forage . . . again, little or no nectar as with the acacia? I hadn't thought camellias would have a lot of nectar flow but they bloom profusely through winter when few other shrubs do reliably. Maybe even a bit of nectar is worth a bee's effort until better forage is available.