{"id":9,"date":"2022-10-17T12:35:41","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T16:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/?p=9"},"modified":"2025-10-27T09:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:51:13","slug":"cold-hardy-camellias-flower-fall-to-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/cold-hardy-camellias-flower-fall-to-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold-Hardy Camellias Flower Fall to Spring\ufffc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"a
Cold-hardy \u2018Winter\u2019s Rose\u2019 is a miniature, fall-blooming hybrid camellia. Photo courtesy of NCSU.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


By Heather N. Kolich<\/span><\/em><\/span>, County Extension Coordinator<\/span>, UGA Extension Forsyth County<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>, October 2022<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/span>
Fall has arrived signaling the end flowering<\/span> for southern landscape staples like roses,<\/span> gardenias, and azaleas. But fall doesn\u2019t have<\/span> to mean an end of flowering shrubs<\/span> altogether. Cold-hardy camellias offer<\/span>
fragrant blooms from September to March in<\/span> USDA hardiness zones 7 and 6b.<\/span><\/span><\/span> Camellias<\/span> \u2013<\/span> the winter rose<\/span>
Years ago, I had the opportunity to tour<\/span> Massey Lane Gardens, headquarters for the<\/span> American Camellia Society, located in Fort<\/span> Valley, Georgia. Bundled up against a chilly<\/span> November wind, I wandered along brick<\/span> walkways through a forest of blooming<\/span> camellias<\/span> that towered tree-like in the nine-acre camellia garden. I was enchanted with<\/span> these winter-blooming, evergreen shrubs.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I was warned that my upper<\/span>–<\/span>piedmont planting grounds might be too<\/span> cold for camellias to survive, I came home<\/span> with two<\/span> Camellia<\/span> japonica<\/span> cultivars:<\/span>
Professor S<\/span>a<\/span>rgent, with peony<\/span>–<\/span>like red<\/span> blooms; and Nuccio\u2019s Pearl, with pale pink<\/span> outer petals cupping a stunning fully double<\/span> white flower.<\/span><\/span><\/span> The beauty of camellias is more than the<\/span> bloom. Like azaleas and rhododendrons,<\/span> camellias are<\/span> shade<\/span>–<\/span>tolerant shrubs. They<\/span> are evergreen, with glossy, dark<\/span>–<\/span>green<\/span> leaves and a variety of forms and sizes.<\/span> Some grow upright while others are<\/span> spreading.<\/span> Camellia hiemalis<\/span> are compact<\/span> plants with a slow growth rate,<\/span> C. japonica<\/span> can reach 15 feet tall and<\/span> eight feet wide,<\/span> and some<\/span> C. sasanqua<\/span> may grow to a 10<\/span>–<\/span>foot column.<\/span> The caffeine<\/span>–<\/span>containing young<\/span> leaves of<\/span> C. sinensis<\/span> are the source of tea<\/span>,<\/span> and the seeds of<\/span> C. oleifera<\/span> contain oil that<\/span> is used for cooking and manufacturing<\/span> cosmetic products<\/span>.<\/span> As added bonuses,<\/span> camellia<\/span> flowers are fragrant, and the shrubs<\/span> are long<\/span>–<\/span>lived.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My experiment with camellias in North<\/span> Georgia was partially successful. The<\/span> Nuccio\u2019s Pearl was defi<\/span>nitely out of its<\/span> hardiness zone of 8<\/span>–<\/span>9, but Professor<\/span> Sargent<\/span>,<\/span> with a cold tolerance of 10 degrees<\/span> Fahrenheit, did well. It was still growing and<\/span> blooming when I sold that house 10 years<\/span> later, but it was much smaller than its<\/span> potential mature size.<\/span><\/span><\/span> Cold<\/span>–<\/span>hardy camellias<\/span><\/span> Since my visit to Massey Lane Gardens,<\/span> camellia breeders have hybridized and<\/span> brought to market several camellia cultivars<\/span> that are cold<\/span>–<\/span>hardy up to USDA zone 6b. It<\/span> was a long process, beginning with the<\/span> collection of C. japonica seeds fro<\/span>m islands<\/span> along the northwestern coast of Korea in<\/span> 1984, where camellias are exposed to<\/span> extreme temperatures from persistent cold<\/span> winter winds. Over several years, plants<\/span> grown from the seeds in field trials at the<\/span>
Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, PA were<\/span> evaluated and whittled down from 730<\/span> seedlings to 25 highly<\/span>–<\/span>rated plants selected<\/span> for planting into the public gardens in 1999.<\/span> After a few more winters, 15 received an<\/span> \u201cA\u201d rating. Plants grown from cuttings of<\/span> these top<\/span>–<\/span>rated, cold<\/span>–<\/span>hardy camellias were<\/span> s<\/span>hared with other public gardens in<\/span> northeastern states.<\/span><\/span><\/span> Along with these field trials, plant breeders<\/span> Dr. William Ackerman of the National<\/span> Arboretum in Washington D.C. and Dr.<\/span> Clifford Parks of the University of North<\/span> Carolina in Chapel Hill began camelli<\/span>a<\/span> breeding programs with the goal of<\/span> incorporating the cold<\/span>–<\/span>hardiness of common camellias into attractive landscape cultivars. These cold-hardy camellia hybrids are now commercially available as both fall and spring blooming selections, with names like \u2018Winter\u2019s Rose\u2019 (fall, pink, 3\u2019x3\u2019 mature size), \u2018Polar Ice\u2019 (fall, white, 10\u2019 mature size), \u2018April Rose\u2019 (spring, deep pink. 5\u2019-8\u2019),
and \u2018Korean Fire\u2019 (spring, red, 10\u2019-15\u2019).<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
Camellia hybrid \u2018Polar Ice\u2019 grows quickly for use in borders or naturalized woodlands. Photo courtesy of NCSU.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Camellia tours<\/strong>
Blooming season for camellias begins in October (also a great time to plant them), and Georgia is home to 30 public gardens that feature camellias. If you need a little more convincing to try planting a camellia
or three in your landscape, consider taking a drive along the Georgia Camellia Trail, one of the agritourism trails on Explore Georgia. From Berry College in Rome to the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens in Savannah, the Georgia Camellia Trail meanders through the heartland of the U.S. \u201ccamellia belt,\u201d showcasing extensive collections of camellias both beautiful and useful.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fall has arrived signaling the end flowering for southern landscape staples like roses, gardenias, and azaleas. But fall doesn\u2019t have to mean an end of flowering shrubs altogether. Cold-hardy camellias offer
\nfragrant blooms from September to March in USDA hardiness zones 7 and 6b.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":18,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4,9,10,5,6,8],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anr","tag-camellias","tag-evergreen","tag-flowering-shrub","tag-flowers","tag-hardy","tag-winter-blooming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2063,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/2063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forsyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}