Scented camellias

20 years ago

I just left the Camellia Forest web site (are they reputable?) where I found descriptions of scented camellias. I've never noticed scent in a camellia before, but I am pretty new to them. If you are familiar with any of these, I'd love to hear your comments. Also if you could post pictures or can give me heights, bloom times, etc. that would be great. These are the varieties I read were scented:

Cinnamon Cindy

Cinnamon Scentsation

High Fragrance

Scentuous

Spring Mist

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Comments (12)

jeff_al
20 years ago
that nursery received good marks from the people who report to garden watchdog. i have not ordered from them, but i would not be hesitant to do so.
if you will do a search at gardenweb for "fragrant camellias", you should find many posts pertaining to that subject.
if i recall, the question of fragrance is subjective, depending on the sniffer. in other words, probably average to slight fragrance at best, on a good day.
bungalow_mikee
20 years ago
High fragrance- Pale ivory pink with deeper pink shades at edge. Medium, peony form. Vigorous, open growth, mid to late season.

Scentous- Miniature to small loose peony. White with pink near edges. Growth upright and willowy. Mid season

Spring Mist- Small, semi-double, blush pink shading to white. Vigorous, upright, open growth, Mid season
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Hi Brandy, Did you go to Camellia Forest? I visited my brother and his family the week-end of the March open house and had a great time there. David showed us around and I left with three new camellias. Central NC is in the midst of one of its periodic droughts but the nursery has its own pond to supply water. I grew up in a small town in that area and remember the droughts as times of great excitement. The woods would catch fire and the fire bells and sirens would sound and what seemed like the whole town would turn out to protect the houses. In our neighborhood we children were organized into bucket brigades to pass water hand to hand from a hose attached to an outdoor spigot. We felt very important, but looking back on it it may have been just a method to keep us out from underfoot and out of danger. These things seldom made the news. Back then, droughts and fires were just part of ordinary life. North Carolina is a camellia paradise. Here in northern Virginia west of Washington, the cold winters of the 1970s to early 80s killed off many of the gorgeous old camellias that once dotted our landscape. The new camellias I'm planting have been bred to withstand colder temps.
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Does it set buds and not open them, or it sets no buds? Do you get good growth on it or is it just "sitting still". If it is sitting still it might be lack of enough sun, or water. Since camellias don't need much food, (it's nice but they bloom without it) I don't think that's it. If you fertilize them heavily at the wrong time, you can cause them to drop their buds. I think a lot of the chemical fertilizers are too strong and should be diluted about half strength but I do know people who use them full strength and their plants are fine. Some of my camellias hardly set any buds this year (just one or two buds on a plant, what a disapointment) but I don't feel so bad because the folks at Nuccios (originators of Nuccios Gem, Nuccios Pearl, Nuccios Bella Rosa, etc.) also said thay had a lousy bud set this year for no known reason. Some of my other camellias set a ton of buds, esp. Koto No Kaori, a scented camellia which is already blooming. I also have a Sawadas dream that since I got it 2 years ago has set a bunch of buds and refuses to open a single one of them.
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This is an interesting development. Did leu gardens inspire you? You can see lots of pretty combinations around DeLand. I especially like the combination of camellias with citrus. The citrus provides scent that camellias lack, and I love the combination of fruits and blooms. The prettiest camellia gardens to me are the ones where camellias are allowed lots of space, growing under a canopy of pines, like at leu. At the camellia society headquarters up in central Georgia, not far from where my parents live, the layout is formal: there's a grid of straight paths lined with lirope, which is used like box to enclose the camellia beds. The camellias are planted in a regular almost orchard like way. In summer they plant between them with shade loving annuals, mostly impatiens and caladiums and things, for color. They plant tea olives here and there too, to provide scent. Tea olives seem to like the same conditions as camellias, but they grow better up there than here. I've seen camellias sheared into shapes and kept quite small. They bloom just as well, if not better. To me the Camellia sasanqua is especially interesting. We used to grow a few camellia at our old house in Orange City and this variety was tougher and bloomed better than the japonica types, though both types did well. See Floridata link below, and check out the gallery at the bottom of the page. There is also a Floridata page for tea, which is another type of camellia. I once read in Southern Living how some sasanquas were so tough they could be trimmed as espalliers against walls. My grandmother planted her camellias for blooms. She planted them quite close and kept them trimmed. It looked like a mini grove of mini trees. My great grandmother mixed them all up. She gave some plenty of space, and now they are humongous trees, and others she grouped and let grow into big banks of shrubs, but of course it took them about fifty years or so to reach that size. She grew mostly sasanquas. You can do almost anything with Camellias! Bill Here is a link that might be useful: sasanquas
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Dear ggg 8 ATL, A couple of my personal favorites are _Camellia japonica_ 'Lady Clare' and _Camellia japonica_ 'Governor Mouton.' These are antique varieties that are still readily available in the nursery trade. Both are excellent landscape camellias--tried and true. 'Lady Clare' has a long blooming season--November till March or April. It has huge dark pink semi-double blossoms with prominent yellow stamens. It is a fast growing plant, with dark green foliage and pendulous branches. It was introduced to Western horticulture in the late 1880's by the famed Caledonia Nursery in the Channel Islands. 'Governor Mouton' is an Oriental red, loosely double camellia, marbled with white splotches. For me, it blooms profusely in February and March. It is one of my favorite camellias not only because of its beauty but also because it is the first japonica I grew successfully as a plant-mad teenager. As you are, no doubt, aware, there are thousands of named and registered camellia varieties, many of which are well-suited to garden use in our climate zone. Take a look at the Camellia Forest Nursery's Website (www.camforest.com) for excellent information on the cold-hardy cultivars they have available for mail-order. David Parks runs this Chapel Hill nursery, and his father Dr. Clifford Parks is a world renowned authority on camellias. Dr. Parks has worked extensively to develop cold-hardy landscape camellias, many of which are offered for sale by Camellia Forest. Camellia Forest also offers many of the Ackerman camellia hybrids that have been bred especially as cold-tolerant landscape plants. 'Berenice Boddy' is another highly reliable _Camellia japonica_ cultivar that's commonly available in the local nursery trade. It's a light pink semi-double that blooms in February for me. It can stand the cold. It sets a lot of seeds, and you will have camellia seedlings surrounding the mother plant. (Oh, horrors! esh-ga will be thinking, "Invasive! Invasive!"
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bungalow_mikee
20 years ago
Since you are in CA you might want to check out Nuccio's Nursery in Altadena. They are world famous!
jane_socal
20 years ago
An article in the LA Times yesterday(see separate posting) quotes Tom Nuccio as saying, re 'High Fragrance,' "On a scent scale of 10, this one's an 8 or 9." It's noted as "a descendant of the sweet-smelling C. lutchuensis." The accompanying picture shows a ruffly pink-and-white flower.

Three slightly fragrant Japonicas in my garden are Herme (aka Jordan's Pride),Silver Waves, and Kramer's Supreme. It's kind of nice to stick your face in them and notice a little something that most Japonicas don't have.
mrbee
20 years ago
Cinnamon Cindy is surely scented but degree varies from year to year. The flower is a light pink miniature.
Temecula
Original Author
20 years ago
Ooh . . . High Fragrance sounds like what I need! What does a miniature mean, the bush or the flower? Thanks!
philomel
19 years ago
The majority of C sasanqua and its cultivars are beautifully scented if you have the climate to enjoy their autumn/winter flowering
CamelliaJim
19 years ago
Another good fragrant hybrid camellia it Kato-No-Kaori. It is a miniature, pink, semi-double with great fragrance and a very small leaf. A camellia species, Grijsii Zhenzhucha, has an unusual fragrance of anise or licorice. Sweet Emily Kate is another good fragrant small bloom, blush pink shading to pale pink at the center. It is a good canidate for a hanging basket with it's pendulous growth habit. Check with Nuccio's Nursery in Altadena.
longriver
19 years ago
Temecula:
I just posted some information and discussion about fragrant camellia in the section of " Fragrant Plant Forum" of this Garden W.

AngelSmell even helped me to post a picture of my seedling flower.
Amy_the_Gardener
19 years ago
I just smelled some cut flowers Herme (Jordan's Pride) on my desk. There is a slight fragrance if you stick your nose right to the center of the flower. I don't smell anything even if I am just a few inches away. But the flowers are gorgeous and the plant is 8 feet tall without receiving any watering during summer. It's on our other empty house.
rastroud
19 years ago
Sweet Emily Kate, High Fragrance, Scentuous are the most fragrant Camellias to date. I grow all three. Cinimon Cindy does not have much scent. My nose is too old to get anything out of it. I have found that in the order listed above, is highest fragrance to lower. There are some who say that Kramer's Supreme has some scent. I could never smell it.

Bob
agtedgerly_yahoo_com
12 years ago
This is awfully late to be helpful to you, but maybe the next person...They (The people at Camelia Forest) are wonderful with VERY scented camelias! I have had mine for years now and love their beautiful mid-winter fragrance!

Scented camellias

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Scented camellias

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