Peak Bloom Time: Our earliest camellias start to open in late December with peak bloom the month of February. Valentine’s Day is always a good time to come. By late March, blooming finishes indoors. The outdoor camellias in our trials are expected to bloom in April but sporadic flowers can occur later in the year as well.
In St. Louis, a camellia holds a special place in the hearts of avid gardeners and casual passers-by alike. A welcome respite, our camellias start to bloom in the depths of winter.
The camellia flower has its beginnings in mid-summer, when the new buds begin to form deep in the terminal meristems. Pruning and shaping are done before the buds form, and the plants are mulched but not fertilized. The flowers, which require a chill period, open between October and April, depending on the species.
The Missouri Botanical Garden houses its camellia collection in the Linnaean House View images of plants growing in the Linnean House.. The Linnaean House, built during Henry Shaw’s lifetime, in 1882, is the longest continually operating greenhouse west of the Mississippi River. The building is a truly Victorian design, with stained glass windows and three busts of renowned scientists: Karl Linnaeus, the father of the system of taxonomy still in use throughout the world today; Asa Gray, an American plant taxonomist; and Thomas Nuttal, a botanist who first described many of the native plants along the Missouri river shed. The Linnaean House was originally used to house the garden’s palm and citrus plants, and at one time included lean-to greenhouses.
The Missouri Botanical Garden collection includes several Camellia species, from the most commonly grown species, Camellia japonica, which comprises thousands of cultivated varieties, to C. sinensis, which is selected for the tea-producing quality of its leaves instead of its flowers. The blooms of C. japonica are most often white, delicate or vibrant pink or dark red, while different species within the genus bring in novel colors such as the yellow flowers of C. crapnelliana (blooms early) or the pale green blooms of C. furfuracea. Also look for the extremely rare yellow-flowering camellia, Camellia chrysantha, at the end of the northeast bed. It is one of the last camellias to flower, generally in bloom in March. Variation in the species C. japonica comes at the cultivar level: ‘Tinsie’ has a two-colored flower, while ‘Descanso Yuletide’ has variegated petals. Camellia flowers can be either full and ruffled, or sparse, with broad petals and a bright yellow center. Most camellias produce little scent, but the house does contain a few delicately fragrant specimens.
The collection includes species samples such as C. rosiflora, which has a low shrub habit and a delicate fragrance; C. reticulata, which hails from the mountains of Yunnan Province, China; and C. transnokoensis, from the island of Taiwan. The Linnaean House contains a propagule of one of the earliest camellias to arrive from China to western gardens, C. japonica ‘Alba Plena’. The Garden’s specimen has an erect and open architecture and generally blooms in January.
Additional camellias were planted in 2007 at the Garden’s Kemper Center for Home Gardening and within the Woodland Garden. The cultivars ‘April Snow’, ‘April Tryst’, ‘April Dawn’, and ‘Spring’s Promise’ are semi-hardy and are being tested for winter-hardiness in the St. Louis region. In their second year, the plants displayed almond-sized buds and were set to flower in the warmth of spring, later than their cloistered cousins.
The bonus feature of the Linnaean House is the fragrant olive, Osmanthus fragrans, which blooms through fall, winter, and spring and lends its sweet scent to the entire house. The fragrance is nearly indescribable, a cross between ripe peaches and jasmine, smells of summer in a long St. Louis winter. |
