Jury's Yellow Camellia
Jury's Yellow Camellia
I am a compulsive plant rescuer. So I feel I must rescue the reputation of one of my most subtle coloured camellias, the misleadingly named 'Jury's Yellow'. This Camellia is a rich beige colour, and it's beautiful. The trouble is that Jury's Yellow isn't yellow. It really never could have been yellow. But the name explains why it gets slightly sniffy write-ups. A naive gardener, expecting a brilliant daffodil sun-yellow bloom, would feel immensely let down. Being beige isn't particularly desirable, colourwise.
Personally I love the colour beige - for roses, camellias, puddings, and cats... In fact, for anything except older women's slacks. My country's national cricket team once dressed in beige uniforms, and a group of non-fahionista supporters (the Beige Brigade) still wear their retro beige tops and trousers with pride. One of my dearest cats, sadly now composting underneath a dogwood in my Cats' Memorial Row, was even called 'Beige Puss'. Oh how I miss him! Even if I did shorten his name to 'B-Puss' and then to 'B'...
Googling Gardeners...
But back to the point of this little story, the Camellia called Jury's Yellow. I did a tiny Google search, and was horrified. Not only does this Camellia have few entries, but there, bold as brass, in the very second entry was the following phrase:
'Of the 3000 camellia cultivar choices I wonder why this is even ever planted - Yuck!'
Aargh! I must rescue this poor Camellia's reputation at once, before thousands of Googling gardeners are turned off and go back to predictable pink...
Beige is Beautiful
Beige is beautiful! OK - if the breeder, New Zealander Les Jury, had been a little more honest and called his shrub 'Jury's Beige', there might be slightly fewer purchasers. But gardeners who matter, those who understand that understatement is super-stylish, and subtle is quietly spectacular - well, they would have been ordering it in their droves. In New Zealand this Camellia could even be marketed to the resigned-to-always-losing-to-Australia cricket fans...
Jury's Yellow Camellia
Jury's Yellow is a gorgeous Camellia - a beautifully rich, subtle, caramelly, creamy beige. Let's get my personal opinion phrase up there in the Google cosmos. Obviously lots of online nurseries selling Jury's Yellow say nice things about it - well, they would, wouldn't they? Thanks and credit to the online forum at gardenweb for the personal posts that got me all fired up. I hope it's been OK to quote you.