I know that this is an answer to the above question quite a few years after the asking. Stewartia ovata and Stewartia malecodendron are the two wonderful native American species in the genus Stewartia. We grow both species.... How they got in our American south eastern woods is a question for paleobotanists to answer. Probably a remnant population from when the continents were connected many of 100 of millions of years ago, when the Asian continent was connected to North American continent...that far back! These two species are all that is left of perhaps quite a few other species of Stewartia that may have developed during the ensuing million of years. We will never know how many species and perhaps even genus of plants were killed off by the persistent burning of eastern forests by early native Americans, the eruption of the volcanic caldera at Yellowstone , which covered forest land all over central America with large amounts of ash ( we are due for a big eruption,one is coming soon!!!!!) and by later European land clearing over the last 400 years or so. . We will never know..... Imagine the plants that were lost....The oriental species are far more easy to germinate than these two American natives. Stewartias native to the U.S. are much like the only two peony species native to North America, P. brownii and P. californica. These two species of peony are the eastern most members of the genus. These rare native herbaceous peonies arrived here in North America around 50 million years ago through the Bering land bridge, perhaps carried by animals , or perhaps by birds. These two native species of Stewartia and the two native species of peony both require special warm cold treatments, a protracted warm period, followed by a lengthy cold period. Again, we grow both of them..... a challenge, to say the least.

Oh, Dave, those are extraordinarily beautiful plants! And pictures! As Kal said, they are so beautiful it's hard to believe they're real. (Nevertheless, I do believe they're real.) I was just looking last night at the Potomac Camellia Society's website and thinking about the Ackerman hybrids. I can certainly see why you think highly of Spring's Promise! The entire plant, along with its prolific blooms is _gorgeous_! And all your others are beautiful, beautiful too. You put me in the mood to snap a picture, and if I can get it loaded, I'm posting a picture that is only half on-topic for this thread. On topic for bud hardiness, but an hiemalis, not a japonica. Our Shishigashira started blooming here in mid-to-early October as best I can recall, and about a month ago we had the impression that it was done. No!!! My husband cut a flower from the Shishigashira today! Bear in mind that we've had an extended cold period in early January here (at the same time you were experiencing the same cold wave) where the official low one night was 13 degrees and there were several nights in a row with lows close to that. This has set me to wondering how many other years it might have bloomed in mid-winter and we just didn't notice because we didn't walk where we might have seen it. The plant is mostly hidden now by much larger plants blocking a view from our usual vantage point. I planted it maybe 20 years ago, before so many azaleas got planted on one side of it. I did plant the (now huge) Hugh Evans at the same time on the other side of it, though, and now I'm wondering what I might have been thinking at the time and whether I knew then how differently the two camellias were going to grow. Oh, well! Now we'll just have to figure out how to transplant the camellia with those largish pots still attached for soil layering... ;) Our Shishigashira is planted in too much shade. However, she has reliably bloomed heavily anyway! So it's a variety I'd recommend for your shady spots--or any spot. And apparently it is exceptionally bud hardy. It hasn't been gibbed, and has barely been fertilized at all (cottonseed meal once in awhile and mulch every fall from the tall deciduous trees it is growing with). I'm going to see if it works to link the picture of Shishigashira that I just took. Dave, how did you embed your pictures? That would be ideal, of course. Best wishes, Mary P.S. It's snowing here now, and sleet is probably on its way too. Glad we got the bloom picked first! It's brightening up the kitchen right now (Professor Sargent behind it). Here is a link that might be useful:

I've got a styrax japonica that I planted at least 15 years ago in part shade. It's a wonderful small tree. I once read that its roots are aggressive, and that nothing will grow near it, but have not noticed that at all. I picked it up at a local fund-raising plant sale when it was about 3' tall and, because I planted it in the root zone of an old silver maple, it took a while to get anywhere, but grew slowly and steadily. Now that the maple is history, I expect great things from the styrax, but even near the maple it bloomed pretty well. Its foliage is always clean and lovely, and the flowers are very nice. My stewartia is just 1 (maybe 2) yeara old, and is about 4' tall. It's in full sun, so I need to be sure it doesn't dry out during the growing season. Even at this young age it blooms! There have been many discussions about it on the trees forum, did you use the search feature there? I highly recommend both of these trees. They might be considered mildly challenging in comparison to some trees, but not to any trees that you'd actually treasure. I highly recommend them both!

Stewartia is beautiful on the trunk and bigger branches (tri-color patches). My experience is with S. pseudocamelia (Japanese), but Michael Dirr says that those in the Mid-Atlantic and South should give S. monodelpha a try (better heat tolerance).