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Community Corner

February Garden Checklist: Camellia 101

The camellia show now playing at a garden near you

February!  Time for camellias to strut their stuff.  Shrubs, arching groundcovers, and trees are abloom. Whites, pinks and reds of many hues, sometimes with striped or flecked petals, new varieties with yellow flowers, some with fragrance.  Home-school-inducing elongated stamens throb in yellows and reds, some with curling petals that obscure the pollen-making organ. 

Excited yet? 

Of the 3,000 worldwide species and varieties, originally from Japan, China and Korea, the San Gabriel Valley sees blooms on most plants in the fall through early spring, for a period of few weeks. Now’s the best time to check out the show, in your garden or at nearby world-renowned botanical gardens, including Descanso Gardens, The Huntington Botanical Garden, and the LA Arboretum.

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Plant ID

The usually erect C. japonica, to 12 feet tall, is the species most often planted in our residential gardens.  C. japonica is known for thick, shiny, deep green leaves and large, three to five inch flowers in semi-double, formal double or peony formed.  The American Camellia Society has established six flower forms. In Granny’s day, these were a mainstay of California foundation plantings, especially in the shade of a north facing wall.

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The single formed flowers, with clearly visible stamens, resembling an apple blossom flower, are more often associated with C. sasanqua.  This camellia has horizontal, looser branches, an airier, more open architecture.  Its flowers often have one row of up to eight petals, known as single form,  and the leaves of the C. sansanqua are longer and slimmer than those of broad C. japonica leaf.  Sasanquas can take more sun, but prefer the canopy of a large tree.  Camellias tolerate freezing temperatures, and dislike poorly drained soil in a wet winter, or completely dry soil in the summer. 

Petal Blight

Wet conditions promote camellia petal blight, or Ciborinia camelliae. Suspect you might have it?  Flowers which quickly turn brown from the center out, and fall prematurely, may be infected.  Flowers with brown rims only may be sun burned or salts scorched.

Petal blight is a water-borne fungal disease, carried by spores that grow as the temperatures heat up.  The spores can live up to three years on the soil surface..  So keep it clean! Rake fallen flowers immediately and dispose of them in the trash, not in the compost pile.  Mulch two to five inches thick with a high-acid material, such as a peat mixture or pine needles.  Replenish the mulch as needed throughout the year taking care not to disturb the top layer upon which spores may have fallen.

Plant Care

Avoid overhead watering to curtail water dripping off of spore- infected petals.  And resist the urge to walk directly on wet  or fog-drenched mountainside soil near your camellias. Body weight compacts wet soil, forcing air out, disrupting drainage. 

Use a wooden plank in the garden as a sort of launch pad to distribute your weight more evenly, causing less disruption of the soil.  Seems like a lot of trouble, but you’ll head off a world of woes with a little care. 

Feed with an acid fertilizer several weeks after blooming.  The plants will store some energy before going dormant in the summer, then reboot in cooler temperatures to grow and develop flower buds, their seeds. 

Prune lightly after flowering, up until summer’s end.  Don’t allow the mow, blow and go gardener to tidy up your mature plant in December.  Some earnest laborers shear off all the flower buds, leaving a smartly squared, evergreen placeholder where a winter beacon once shone.

Seeing Is Believing

When you’re ready to play with the big kids, trek over to Nuccio’s Nursery in Altadena, the Huntington Botanical Garden in San Marino and San Gabriel Nursery in San Gabriel.  These are just a few of the local growers who continue to actively create new hybrids.  The Huntington features over 100 specimens created by world-renowned Nuccios, in addition to performing their own trials.  First Thursdays are free at the Huntington (with pre-printed advanced ticket).   Or stretch your limbs at the LA County Arboretum to admire the winter show.

Even if you don’t have room for a camellia of your own, now is the time to see this lovely shrub in its winter glory.  

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