SCIENTIFIC NAME: Camellia japonica

COMMON NAME: common camellia

FLOWERS: Large blooms in fall, winter, and spring depending on the cultivar. Red, white, pink, or variegated depending on cultivar.

GROWTH HABIT: 6' to 10' tall. Some cultivars get much taller.

LEAVES: Alternate. Thick and serrated along the margin. Black gland at the tip of serrations. Leaves 3" to 5" long. Leaves and twigs are glabrous. Leaves widest below the middle or in the middle.

OTHER: Hardy to zone 7. Likes acid soils with good drainage in part shade. State flower of Alabama. Camellia shows are highly competitive events in many places and further evidence of the strong emotions this species engenders. Tea scale is the major insect problem on this species. It colonizes under the leaf and sucks the plant sap causing yellow blotches to appear on the leaf. The brown scales are the female and the white scales are the males. Many times the cultivars of this species are grafted onto Camellia sasanqua rootstock.

CULTIVARS: Red: 'Governor Mouton'. 'R. L. Wheeler', 'Gulio Nuccio', 'Professor Sergeant', 'Mathoniana Supreme', 'Jarvis Red', 'Victor Emanuel', 'Lindsay Neill', 'Arejishi', 'Daikagura', 'Tomorrow', 'Rutledge Mimmix', 'Flame', 'Miss Charleston', 'Mrs. Charles Cobb', 'Firebrand' . White: 'Leucantha'. 'September Morn', 'White Daikagura', 'Joshua Youtz', 'Emmett Barnes', 'Alba Plena', 'Snowman', 'White Empress'. Pink: 'Marjorie Magnificent', 'C. M. Wilson', 'Kumasaka', 'Dr. Tinsley', 'Drama Girl', 'Berenice Boddy', 'Magnoliaeflora', 'High Hat', 'Rev. John Drayton', 'Pink Champagne', 'Rose Dawn', 'Lady Clare', 'Pink Perfection', 'Debutante', 'Mrs. D. W. Davis', 'Tiffany'. Variegated: 'Donckelari', 'Adolphe Audusson', 'Ville de Nantes', 'Chandlei Elegans', 'Lady Vansittart', 'Daikagura', 'Herme', 'R. L. Wheeler', 'Ls Peppermint', 'Gulio Nuccio', 'Tricolor', 'Betty Sheffield Supreme', 'Lady Kay'.