it is fall in the south and you know what that means camellia
season is upon us stay tuned because school is in session for camellia 101
hello friends welcome to gardening with creekside i am jenny and yes it is the fall
and we are in the south so that means one thing camellias are coming into all of their glory
i thought it would be really helpful for um not only myself but for you too to get a little bit of
schooling on camellias this is just the basics this is not going to be a master class on camellia
care or diving into all of the camellia varieties because there are literally thousands but i did
think it would be very helpful for us just to kind of cover the basics so camellias a couple
of fun facts for you camellias are native to asia so they're very popular in china japan and india
one of the if not the oldest camellia in the entire world is located in china in a monastery
and it was actually planted in 1342 i know extremely long-lived so once you have a camellia
established that is the beauty of these beautiful plants is that they just will be long-lived and
very happy now camellias another thing i did not know this they are actually part of the tea family
all of our black tea green tea actually come from a camellia plant now it's not the camellia plants
that you see in front of me they're actually like over 300 different species of camellias so the tea
actually comes from a tea camellia what we have in front of me are two of the most popular varieties
of camellias species of camellias that we find here in the south these that are blooming here
on my left are cisanquas we love susinkwas because they are the first varieties to bloom in the south
the ones over here that are just lovely green shrubs those are japonicas so japonicos will
bloom actually beginning around christmas into the early spring the beauty thing beautiful thing
about camellias is if you plant accordingly you can have up to six months of beautiful flowers
in the dead of winter all the way from fall into spring so how do you know the difference between a
sasquatch and a japonica well there's really just a really easy way to tell just by looking at them
the cesanqua leaves are typically much smaller than the japonica japonica can be nice and fat
like up to four inches long really huge fat leaves so sanquis will actually grow faster so
the benefit of a cesanqui is that it is the first to bloom they tend to be a little bit on the more
smaller side so you can have different varieties that are low growing shrubs just a moderate size
up to about that eight foot range they have just a great um fast growth so you can shape them however
you want them so if you want a hedge you can do a hedge if you want to shape them into a tree
you can do like a tree form then the japonicas are fantastic because they are a little bit
of a slower grower and they bloom beginning in christmas all throughout the springtime so if
you have an area and you're looking to really kind of establish your garden and you want to
sit and back and just watch it grow and you're planting for longevity then i would definitely
put some japonicas into your garden space they will also even though they are slower growers
they will get bigger in the long run we were actually at a customer's house and they had
a camellia trained into a tree form it looked like a crepe myrtle you weren't paying attention you
would think it was just a crape myrtle and it was actually a camellia it was positively a marvelous
thing and it just inspired me but you have to think this is long term because this was an older
home and those camellia that camellia was probably planted easily probably 50 years ago so that is
another great benefit of camellias is that they are just so long-lived they hold a lot of memories
to be passed down from one generation to another and then you cannot beat the color of these blooms
absolutely gorgeous so camellias will come in whites pinks reds yellows and then all sorts
of variations in between you can get a single bloom which just means just a single petals
you can get double blooms which looks more like a rose you can get a penny form they come in
all sorts of different um petal types and like in fact with the american camellia society there are
over 2 000 different varieties of camellias listed that are found in the united states
so truly the world is your oyster when you're trying to pick out a camellia
so if you want to find something that is low or you have a certain color then you just go
on a hunt for the right variety now talking about that what is the care for a camellia
the otami camellias really do prefer to be in an environment like this under a tree
canopy because they do not like to have a lot of direct sun especially that late hot afternoon sun
they love to have acidic soil so they are very much an acid loving plant underneath
some trees if you have a pine grove like we do right here this is the perfect place for them
to receive that filtered sunlight because they are such slow growers that means that their roots
are also a slow grower so you're going to have to really kind of pay attention for the first couple
of years with your camellia to make sure that it is well established and because you'll probably be
planting those older varieties underneath trees you're going to have to think okay
my camellia is competing for water against roots from these trees so you're going to
have to go out in the heat of the summer if you go through a drought make sure that they
have water because again that's when they're they could be forming their buds so you don't want to
put the plant in stress when it's forming its buds therefore it may not bloom so the old varieties
do prefer that filtered sun but of course in the great world of horticulture they have been able
to breed camellias that do really well in full sun if you find any kind of camellia from the
southern living plant collection they have done an absolute marvelous job breeding new varieties
of camellias and they are more sun tolerant again you will have to pay attention to what size that
the plant will ultimately be which leads me to another point when you are planting your camellia
you need to make sure that you know what variety it is and what its mature size will be and then
you need to plant accordingly so that it has plenty of room to grow you've got to think long
term on these camellias do not think just right now in the future because jerry and i have gone
to so many different older homes where 30 40 50 years ago the original homeowners planted like
a japonica right on the corner of their house like two feet away from their house that is not
a good place for that plant at all because that camellia has completely overtaken the whole house
and it kills me but sometimes the best thing to do is to take that plant out even though
i love camellias and there's nothing more gorgeous than a beautiful healthy camellia but when it is
growing into your house and growing into your roof it's got to be removed so make sure that you know
your mature size and that you plant accordingly give them lots of room to groove and to grow
maintenance what do you do well they're pretty maintenance-free but if you're going to prune a
camellia that is going to be done in late winter early spring so really you can really really prune
them from beginning like valentine's day up to may 1st i would probably go ahead and prune my
cesenquas right there at valentine's day because they're already done blooming i would wait on my
japonicas if they're still blooming then i'm not going to prune that until later on in the spring
at that point if you just want to gently come in and shape the plant you can do that you will see
that these the sink was right here some of them have a lot of length on them whether there's
random limbs or just really tall you're just going to come in and give it a gentle shape at this
point you do not need there is no need to come in and do a heavy pruning on them now if you do have
a camellia that has been in your garden your yard for many many years and it is huge you can give it
a really severe haircut prune it back but you want to do that between that valentine's day and may
1st if you do it any later than that one you're putting the plant under a lot of stress because
we're going into the heat of the summer and then two you are risking cutting off all of your blooms
for that next year because all camellias bloom on old growth that means in the spring summer
and early fall they are putting on their buds for the next season very much like azaleas so
you want to prune them immediately after they bloom and not any later otherwise you're going
to forfeit your blooms for that following year so they really grow in like zones seven to ten
you can find maybe some varieties that will go to a six but you've got to be really careful again
there's tons of different varieties there will be different sizes different shapes different colors
different growing zones so just pay attention and know your zone and know the plant zone
but i just encourage you to go out there if you were in these growing zones if you're in
the south and you don't have a camellia i really do encourage you to get one because you will not
be disappointed in the blooms i was just telling jerry the other day that i love this time of year
because we have the tea olives are blooming and they smell delicious and the camellias the senquas
are just in all of their glory and they are just positively glorious i hope you have found this
chameleon 101 a little helpful and informative go out and find you a camellia to put in your garden
as always thank you for gardening with creekside we'll see you in the next video bye friends