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In My Garden Blog

January 3, 2008
Mid-Atlantic
By Charlotte Kidd,
Radnor, PA

While this camellia bloomed at Christmas in Florida, winter-hardy camellia cultivars flowered in Philadelphia, too.

Hardy Camellias Creep North

Two weeks before Christmas in Philadelphia, one rose-red blossom popped brightly on Doris' 'Winter's Fancy' camellia. A miracle, I marveled, because her plant had maybe seven leaves left this spring. North, in Chestnut Hill, four pink camellia flowers were more than I expected on Marilyn's 'Winter's Dream', which also suffered in last winter's warm-then-frigid spring weather.

Up the street, Saundra's glossy-leaved 'April Rose' camellias were lush with plump flower buds tight till spring bloom. Her garden is surrounded by a creamy stucco wall, which makes it a warmer, protected microclimate. (Microclimate refers to the weather in a small space, such as a garden, park, valley, or city space, that varies subtly -- in temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall -- from the region's overall weather conditions.)

Any day now I'll bundle Saundra's camellias in frost-protection fabric and burlap to coddle those fragile buds. After all petals drop from Doris' and Marilyn's flowers, I'll wrap their camellia plants to forestall leaf burn from extreme winter temperatures.

With fingers crossed, I'd planted these cold-hardy camellia cultivars early last season. To my delight (and relief!), they're giving colorful accent to otherwise winter-drab city gardens in southeastern Pennsylvania -- Zone 7 according to the National Arbor Day Foundation's (NADF) 2006 U.S. Hardiness Zone map; Zone 6-B according to the USDA's 2003 U.S. Hardiness Zone map.

Camellias and Christmas in Florida
It's late December. I appreciate but am not surprised at the gorgeous pink flowers covering several compact camellias in a friend's yard in Amelia Island, Florida. Tropical coral and lemon yellow hibiscus bloom nonstop. This is the Georgia-Florida border, NADF Zone 9 or USDA Zone 9-A. The average annual low temperature is from 30 to 20 degrees F (NADF); 25 to 20 degrees (USDA).

Camellias Creep North
Which camellias are acclimated to colder climes (that are becoming increasingly warmer with global climate change) in southeastern Pennsylvania and points north?

Sun-tolerant Camellia sasanqua is a relatively cold-hardy favorite among plant aficionados. Its small, fragrant, usually single flowers are eclipsed by the showy, large Japanese camellia flowers everyone wants. Though rated for USDA Zones 7 through 9, Camellia sasanqua grows and blooms beautifully for suburban friends in USDA 6.

The popular Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) has 3- to 5-inch, semidouble or double, pink or red or white or variegated flowers and dark green leaves. It's very iffy, though, in USDA 6, marginal in 7, hardy in southern zones 8 and 9.

So I'm experimenting. The U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., has been introducing "cold hardy" camellia hybrids with hope but also caution and no guarantee they'll thrive in USDA 6 or colder. Research geneticist William Ackerman developed many of them.

Now retired, Ackerman prefers late-fall-into-winter bloomers because of winter bud loss. He recommends (and I've easily found) some of his 'Winter' series: 'Winter's Charm', Winter's Beauty', and 'Winter's Fancy'. Also on Ackerman's list: 'Winter's Fire', 'Winter's Hope', 'Winter's Interlude', 'Winter's Rose', 'Winter's Toughie', and more. He includes the Ashton series -- Ballet, Cameo, Pink, Prelude, Pride, Snow, Supreme -- which I've never seen.

Enjoyed this month's column on winter hardy camellias.  Camellias
have always been a favorite and I despaired of ever having a
camellia bloom and live over in northern New Jersey! But, I found
the Winter's Joy camellia in a nursery on Long Island, NY that I
planted in my garden two years ago.  It has almost doubled in size
and has had many buds on it which began to open at Thanksgiving.  I
have photographs of blooms covered with icy snow from storms in
December.  The last buds are opening now in January but I have to
compete with the local squirrels who find the buds very tempting as
they start to open.  Can't figure out how to outwit the squirrels
who have decapitated a pineapple plant, eaten gardenia buds,
camellia buds, and raided my suet cakes (even though supposedly
squirrels don't like suet cakes with hot chili peppers mixed in.

Hi Dorothy, Thanks for telling us about YOUR success with 'Winter
Joy" in northern New Jersey. I'll add that cultivar to my list of
fall-early 
winter bloomers.

Wish I had or knew of a magic solution to deter nibbling squirrels.
No product I've tried so far works. I have enclosed some plants in
wire mesh cages to stop deer browsing and cats digging in the
surrounding soil. Perhaps that method would discourage squirrels too
from eating small to medium-sized plants. Not so attractive though.
And impractical for large shrubs such as camellias.
>
Yesterday my garden helper said he's put cut hair around plants to
keep rabbits out... and it's been effective. Was also at a garden
Monday where the owner painted his wire cages brown - they blend
nicely in the garden.

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