Japanese Camellia

Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica, Theaceae) is a slow-growing evergreen shrub from Japan and China, found wild in forests at 300 to 1,100 meters elevation. It typically reaches 10 to 15 feet tall with a dense pyramidal form. Alternate, simple, ovate to elliptic leaves (2.5 to 10 centimeters) are dark lustrous green and leathery with serrate margins. Flowers range from 6 to 13 centimeters across in forms including single, semidouble, formal double, and peony types, in colors spanning white, pink, rose, and red. Bloom occurs from early winter to spring.

Japanese camellia grows in sun to part shade (part shade preferred) on moist, acid, organic, well-drained soil (pH 5.0 to 6.5), hardy in Zones 7b to 8b. It blooms on old wood and should be pruned immediately after flowering. Over 2,000 cultivars have been bred, including 'April Remembered,' 'Kramer,' 'Marie Bracey,' and 'Nuccio.' Disease pressure is significant: 12 associations are documented, including flower and petal blight, leaf gall, Ramorum leaf and shoot blight, sooty mold, and cold injury. Pest associations include cottony camellia scale, brown soft scale, aphids, root weevils, and black citrus aphid.