While the rose is the national flower of the United States, the camellia just may be the inflorescence queen of the South. While roses’ performance can be finicky in hot humid summers, camellias thrive in our mild cool winters. There are even gardens across the South devoted to the flowering evergreen shrubs. These blooms of late fall and winter consistently rank as one of the South’s favorite blossoms.
While not native to the South or even to North America, camellias have been so widely planted across our regions since first introduced around 1800 that many assume them to be true southern bell blooms. These evergreen beauties are in fact native to eastern and southern Asia. The first plants were brought to North America in 1797 where they were grown in greenhouses in New England.
Camellia is the common name many people use for the plant scientifically known as Camellia japonica. The genus Camellia includes around 80 species, several of which are grown as ornamentals including C. sasanqua, C. vernalis, C. reticulata, C. oleifera, and C. chrysantha, along with many hybrids. Fittingly enough, the favorite drink of the South – sweet tea, comes from a camellia plant, C. sinensis. While blooms of C. japonica often get all the attention, C. sasanquas are a highly prized and widely planted landscape plant, especially cultivars such the 2010 Louisiana Super Plant, ShiShi Gashira.
Perhaps you have spotted camellia flowers in the past week or so. These are probably blooms of C. sasanqua. These bloom earlier than japonicas, typically starting in October. The flowers of sasanquas are usually slightly smaller than those of japonicas. The leaves are also smaller.
While C. japonica requires full shade to dapple sunlight, sasanquas are a good choice for yards with part shade to full sun. These will provide colorful flowers for the landscape from October into January, just in time for japonica flowers to start opening. Camellia flowers come in many shades of red, pink, lavender, white, cream, striped, and mottled. There are single, semi-double, double, peony, anemone, and rose forms of blooms.
Both plants prefer well-drained, acidic soil with a pH between 5.0 and 6.0. Often you will see them planted around pine trees and azaleas which share similar soil requirements. All camellias benefit from a 2-to-3-inch layer of mulch – pine straw or pine bark mulch are best – around the root zone of the plants.
If properly planted and cared for, these plants are very long-lived, hardy evergreens in our area. They benefit from an application of a general purpose or azalea-camellia blend fertilizer in late winter when new growth begins. Pruning to maintain the desired form and size should be done immediately after flowering has finished. The plants begin setting flower buds in the spring as new growth emerges. One common issue associated with camellias is the camellia tea scale insect. These are best controlled with applications of insecticides or horticultural oil sprays to the underside of leaves in early spring.
Cultivars japonica and sasanqua come in many different mature sizes. Some will remain small such as ShiShi Gashira, which grows to 4-to-5-feet, while others such as Yuletide can reach 10 feet in height. Be sure to check the mature size on plant labels before purchasing camellias.
Now through February is a great time for planting all species of camellias in the landscape. One benefit of purchasing these now is you can make sure you are selecting the color of flowers you like. Remember to keep newly planted shrubs watered during periods of drought. Smaller growing sasanquas make excellent foundation plantings around homes. Enjoy the blooming sasanquas now and watch for japonica blooms to follow around Christmas.
