The enjoyment of this great floral phenomenon is no longer limited to the deep South. Due primarily to the work of Dr. William Ackerman in Maryland and Dr. Clifford Parks in North Carolina, cold hardy camellias are now on the market which have pushed the range of camellias well up into the Mid-Atlantic states. If you are geographically located in climate zone 7 or points northward, look for names like 'Snow Flurry,' 'Winter's Charm,' or 'Princess Lavender II.' These are new varieties which will be best suited for areas where temperatures hover near the zero mark during winter.
If you are new at this game of camellia growing, your first task will be venturing out to a nursery or garden center and purchasing a potted camellia for your yard. You might be lucky enough to have a friend who will give you an established camellia plant to move. You might want to air-layer a camellia, or even start new plants from cuttings. Moving camellias must be done during the dormant time of year, and even then you cannot be sure that the moved plant will like its new home. Cuttings and air-layering take quite a long time – two to five years before established plants bloom in your landscape.
Finding a Reputable Dealer
So, we are back to purchasing a potted camellia. How do you go about this task and what do you look for? You want to be sure that your new camellia is good in every way. First, go to a reputable dealer. Twenty years ago there were many good camellia nurseries in the South. Then came the subzero freezes of 1985 and 1989. Poof – away went the camellia nurseries. The plants were either frozen to death or deemed too delicate and unprofitable to grow in many nurseries. The inventory of camellias available for sale plummeted.
Today many North Carolina garden centers and mass merchandisers get their camellias from the west coast. This is not altogether bad, since there are several great nurseries in California, Oregon and Washington. The famous Nuccio's Nursery and Monrovia Nurseries in California produce excellent camellias. Closer to home, Flowerwood Nurseries in Mobile, Alabama, is a good grower. George Gerbing is a grower located in southeast Georgia. Here in North Carolina the premier camellia grower is Ray Watson at Cam-Too Nursery in Greensboro. There are other smaller nurseries with reasonably good inventories of camellias. Here is a list of American Camellia Society Member Nurseries.
What to Look For
When you go into the garden center to buy a camellia, first notice the general care given to all of the plants in the store. Are they healthy and do they generally appear to be well cared for? If yes to that question, take a look at the camellias. Are they well branched, indicating that the grower attended to pruning in a timely manner? Or are they leggy, indicating that you will have to cut them back and waste a year getting them into good shape? Are they well budded? If they were not pruned on time the previous year, they might have the desired bushiness, but did not have time to grow out and set buds on mature wood. This would result in a relatively bud-less camellia – not one you want to buy.
Checking for Insects and Diseases
Check for insects and diseases. Consult a good book on camellias, or the literature of the American Camellia Society. Observe the pictures of camellia pathogens, and then search carefully on the plant you are about to purchase for these critters. Aphids, scale, and spider mites are the most common problems. Aphids will be clearly visible and will leave a sticky, smudged leaf surface that might be turning dark and dirty due to sooty mold growing on the sugary aphid excrement. Spider mites will be difficult to see, but in a worst-case situation will leave dusty webbing under the leaves and in the leaf axils, along with dead cells in the leaf which cause them to appear stippled with yellow dots.
Several types of scale affect camellias. The most common is tea scale or camellia scale. These live mostly on the undersides of the leaves, and appear to be tiny white or brown oyster shells encrusted on the leaf surface. Peony scale will leave telltale white circular dots on the stems where they have been feeding. Wax scale are very large waxy white blobs which live on the tender stems of the camellia and will be clearly visible if you go on a wild critter hunt. All types of scale are undesirable because they suck the sugary juices – and vigor – out of the plant. Don't buy plants with any sign of scale.
We would be remiss if we did not mention the unmentionable here. You must also check for the untreatable insects. Mole crickets plague many parts of the South, particularly the coastal areas. These pesky crickets, with mole-like digging appendages for front legs, can destroy golf course greens overnight. Check the rootball for their presence. Be sure the rootball is free of the omnipresent fire ants. These tiny brown ants are everywhere, from eastern North Carolina to Texas, and they can sting unwary intruders who come too close to their mounds with multiple, dangerous, fiery-hot bites. Look for crumbly anthills on or near the rootball or in the container. If fire ants are present, buy a different camellia from another nursery.
Now let's check for diseases. The most common diseases will be stem dieback, canker, leaf gall, and flower blight. Stem dieback is just what the name implies – does the camellia have any limbs which appear dead? If so, check the point of attachment with the main stem. If a lesion, or canker, exists where limbs used to thrive, you know that there probably is stem dieback disease present. If some of the leaves have become grossly thickened and white on the bottoms, you have fungal leaf gall. And, worst of all, if the flowers produce brown rotten spots soon after opening, and the petals are consumed by the rotting within a day or two, you have the dreaded camellia flower blight. Leave plants with any of these afflictions alone – do not take them home with you.
True to Type and Variegation
If you are satisfied with the health of the plant, next make sure the camellia you are considering is true to type – that is, the plant is correctly named with accurate color-picture tags. And make sure that your selection is a good varietal choice for your area or climate zone. In the Fall 1996 issue of the Atlantic Coast Camellia Society journal, I listed over 30 great old camellia cultivars which have stood the test of time and are accepted as sturdy, hardy varieties with fine bloom displays. Check with your reputable nurseryman and see the bloom in person to be sure that the flowers of your new plant live up to your expectations.
In addition to being true to type, you might also want to collect several camellias which have variegated blooms. While some variegated cultivars are genetically bi-colored, others acquire this trait through the introduction of a virus. The virus destroys color in flowers, leaving pink or red flowers with attractive white markings. You must see the flowers on the camellia to determine if it is variegated. If so, most growers agree that the highly variegated flowers (those with heavy white marbling or moiring) are most desirable.
Look carefully at the markings on the blooms of the plants you are considering for purchase, and make sure they are infected with a virus of such virulence that the white markings are substantial and attractive. Some cultivars, such as Helen Bower and Dr. Clifford Parks, frequently have only a light speckling of white, which actually takes away from their otherwise rich red color. Others exhibit wild splashes of white which are very attractive. Choose the variegation you like best by viewing the plants during the blooming season. When not blooming, if there is variegation in the leaves in the form of yellow spots, this can sometimes indicate that the variegating virus is present.