The Flower of Autumn Sun
Camellia sasanqua ‘Tai-shuhai’ 大朱盃 (たいしゅはい) meaning “Large Vermilion Cup”. According to Nippon Tsubaki ・ Sasanqua Meikan, Tai-shuhai came from Fukuoka Prefecture. The cultivar originated and named in Kurume in 1960s by Shunsuke Hisatomi.
I got the cutting of this cultivar from Nuccio’s Nurseries. When the plant started to bloom on January 20, 2009, I was amazed by the freshness of colors and the shape of its flower:
Although I don’t speak Chinese I was always curious to buy the book Monograph of The Genus Camellia 世界山茶属的研究 by Ming Tien-Lu (2000) since this is one of three main books about the botany of the genus Camellia. Two other books are A Revision of the Genus Camellia by J. Robert Sealy (1958) and Camellias by Chang Hung Ta and Bruce Bartholomew (1984).
And finally I found the book!
http://www.hceis.com/book.asp?id=1376
They also have a new book about sasanquas I was also looking for – Sasanqua (Cha Mei) 茶梅 by Xu Biyu and Lin Tianfei et al (2007).
http://www.hceis.com/book.asp?id=7319
Wow! Now I want to go to the nearby Foothill College to take an introductory course in Chinese (I was studying Japanese over there and it was very decent).
