Camellias fruits and seeds

Camellias can give, during summer, fruits... These fruits can give seeds, or oil. Here is, in pictures, how to collect and sow seeds. You can also follow, in images, the growth of these baby camellias.

On the left 'Kanjiro' fruit, on the right 'Lady Vansittart'.

It is necessary to let them mature and wait for the end of the summer. A morning, the fruit can open (here 'Kanjiro').

A seed, or several, will be collected

You can plant the seed, or all the seeds collected. Here is the recipe, given by a friend:

Choose a deep container, because camellias develop their roots first. Mix a compost with:

1 shovelful of sand,
1 shovelful of normal horticultural compost,
2 shovelful of compost

Then seed is plough in so that it is just covered with the mixture. Let the container outside (or even forget it). The following year, in spring, you may see growths. You can put several seeds together in the same container.

Here at one year old, in autumn 2005, 'Anne-Francoise'. It measured 22 cm. I simply repotted it in spring 2006 in normal compost and I gave him very small quantity of fertilizer.

You must wait between 5 to 10 years to see it flowering. On the other hand, the hybrids williamsii, which one can also recover and plant seeds, flower into 2 or 3 years. Remain the flowering, which will be a surprise, either it will be identical to Anne-Francoise, or very different.

'Anne-Francoise' continues to grow. Here the small shrub at two years old, at the end of 2006 summer. It measures 45 cm and I slightly cut it in spring to help it to ramify.