Can you tell me what this is?

[takemeawayagain]

We've had this shrub? Bush? in our garden for 20 years. It was small and looking awful when we moved in, just a few little sticks really so I chopped at it a bit and tried to keep the healthier looking bits. Anyway 20 years later it has suddenly, for the first time, come out in lovely flowers - but I don't know what it is. Can anyone help?

It's a rose. There are so many types and varieties. It could be a dog rose, which is another name for a wild rose.

No, it's a camellia. They like ericaceous soil.

Well I did wonder if it was a camellia but if you enlarge the pic it's got serrated leaves. Camellias don't have serrated leaves do they? Apologies if I'm wrong, my brain is s bit fried with stress at the moment so I could be easily!

I thought camelia too.We've had great success with the ericacious feed. They flower early spring (we've not got any roses out yet, would seem a bit early for them?).

Yes, some varieties can have serrated leaf edges.

definitely camellias

Bloody common or garden variety camellia - aka Camellia Japonica. Lovely flowers. (Tea is a type of camellia - camellia sinensis. Different variety.) They require partial shade, or the flower burn up and go crispy.

I thought it was a camellia. It's very like ours.

Ah if it's a Camellia that would explain why it's done so badly for 20 years, our soil is not great for acid loving plants. That's really helpful, I'll get some ericacious feed to hopefully perk it up and keep it flowering in future.

The big difference in leaves is that Camellia has “simple” leaves, whereas roses have “compound” leaves made up of two or more pairs of leaflets and another leaflet at the end. Roses also have “stipules”, little leafy bits where the leaf joins the branch.

@takemeawayagain What a lovely surprise to find that it has pretty white flowers after all this time.

You can buy ericaceous compost, and a top dressing of that would be good for it as well as a feed. You can also give liquid seaweed as a tonic if the leaves are looking a bit on the yellow side.