At this moment, camellia sinensis is not offered in cold hardy varieties. It is a warm region camellia. It does well in Zone 8 and can venture its toes into some Zone 7 areas where it may suffer winter damage at times but will recover. Your best bet is to grow it in a greenhouse type of setting during the cold winter months. There are cold hardy camellias that get around this problem by blooming early (called the Winter Series because they bloom in early) or late (called the April Series because they bloom in mid-to-late Spring). This allows the plant to survive the coldest temperatures while the much tender blooms survive warmer early-late winter temperatures. Unfortunately, "the" tea camellia sinensis is not one of them yet. One can still hope.

As for hardiness, I have had a Camellia sinensis planted by a west-facing concrete porch for several years with no problem. I bought it from Burnt Ridge nursery in Onalaska WA. Sometimes their plants are small but the first one below says it is a gallon. They sell inexpensive seedling plants in a lot of fruit and nut trees. I'm still waiting for fruit on some small plants I bought from them after several years. Maybe some day... Nice people, family business. http://landru.myhome.net/burntridge/ornament.html TEA BREEZE - A dark green leafed selection. Widely cultivated for tea. Hardy to zone 7. Grown in gallon pots, about 3 ft. tall. Multi branched $15.00 ea. BLUSHING MAIDEN - A pink flowered selection, otherwise similar to Tea Breeze. Grown in gallon pot, about 12-18" tall. Multi branched $15.00 ea.

> The root rot just really surprises me, because while I do try to make sure the soil is moist, I accidentally allow it go almost dry quite often. I started growing camellias a year ago, and I was following the advice of allowing the soil to dry somewhat before watering again. However, I probably allowed the soil to dry too much and that was the thing I did that killed 4 camellias. 3 of them were japonicas of about 3–4 feet tall and 1 of them was a sasanqua of about 1.5 feet tall. The symptom was similar to what you are describing here. First, a branch would turn brown. Then, more leaves would turn brown. Eventually, leaves that were still green would start to drop until the plant became bare. None of my camellias killed this way recovered. Since then, I would always water my camellias routinely, at least once a week, regardless of whether the soil was moist or not. My thinking is that camellias grown outdoors can get rained on for several days. If not allowing the soil to dry somewhat can kill them, then they cannot possibly survive natural precipitation. Though, I do make sure that my pot-grown camellias have a soil medium that drains well, and the pots have plenty of drainage holes. Watering camellias regularly has worked well for me for several months now, and I do it even during winter months (as long as the temperature is mild and the soil is not frozen, so water can drain). Each time I do it, I would pour in about half a gallon of water per pot (they are 3 or 5 gallon pots) and allow excessive water to drain out. I have not had problem with root rot, yet. (Fingers crossed.) On the topic of C. Sinensis, I am in Zone 6 (probably 6a), and I have a C. Sinensis ‘Small Leaf Tea’ that is doing quite well on my balcony since I got it last December. Although this winter so far has been unseasonably mild (with coldest temperature being only −12°C/10°F), the temperature would hover around −8°C/18°F for 4–5 days without going above freezing during cold spells. I did protect all my camellias from wind, but some japonicas still showed signs of winter burn with some leaves that had brown blotches. The sinensis had no problem at all. The ‘Small Leaf Tea’ cultivar is rated for Zone 6b, according to CamForest, and might work for you.

"Camellias in general do not grow as well in Southern California, but once they get older and more established, if they're in a spot that gets a little shade, and they are kept watered in the Summer, they can do okay." The Huntington Library and Garden in Pasadena had some of the largest and most spectacular camellias I'd seen. There are over 1000 cultivars there. It's also been named an "International Camellia Garden of Excellence", whatever that means. However, big picture that must be remembered is it not a plant truly suited to the region. Camellias are from a climate of wet, monsoonal summers. CA clearly has a water supply problem that's only going to get worse. People planting things that need a lot of water there doesn't help.