Celebrating the camellia
Few plants can rival the camellia for its usefulness, commercial importance, and beauty. Even if you've never seen a camellia flower, you've drunk tea made from the caffeine-rich leaves of Camellia sinensis, which has been brewed in China for 5,000 years and played a major role in international trade. You could say that the first global economy was based on tea. Other uses have included culinary and industrial oils, cosmetics, and food.
Some kinds of camellias have also been revered as ornamental plants. Beloved for their ability to bloom in late winter, they were traditionally considered the most beautiful of flowers in China and have long been an important decorative art motif for Asian ceramics, textiles, scrolls, and porcelain.
The blooms range in color from purest white to deepest red and many are variegated. As large as 5 inches in width, they come in single, semi-double, formal double, anemone, peony, and rose forms, thanks to many centuries of breeding.
Boston's embrace of camellias dates back to the China Trade. In fact, legend has it that ornamental camellias were first exported to the West mislabeled as tea plants by Chinese merchants intent on protecting their export markets for the beverage.
On Feb. 28 and 29, the Massachusetts Camellia Society will hold its 175th Exhibition, the oldest camellia show in the nation, in the Hunnewell Building at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum, 125 Jamaicaway, Jamaica Plain, Saturday noon-5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission is free (617-524-1718).
Tables will be laden with bowls of water floating hundreds of blooms of Camellia japonica, sorted and judged according to form and color. There will also be blooming plants on exhibit, as well as photographs and 19th-century botanical prints of this fabled flower.
Special features will include a tea tasting from 1 to 3 p.m. both days conducted by Wu Jianxin of the Qingping Gallery Teahouse, a traditional Chinese teahouse that features contemporary Chinese art and culture, at 231 Shawmut Ave. in the South End (617-482-9988).
Richard Schulhof, the new deputy director of the Arnold Arboretum, grew to love these flowers when he was director of Descanso Gardens in La Canada, Calif. There he oversaw 40,000 camellia bushes representing 800 varieties and species. "California has the perfect climate for them," he said.
The plant is native to China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, where scientists continue to find new types of wild camellias. Vietnam and China have the only known wild population of yellow camellias. In 2002, Schulhof attended the first international conference on these plants in Hanoi ("one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited").
"We lost touch during the conflict there, but in the early 1990s we learned that Vietnamese botanists had discovered amazing new plants there that are not yet in cultivation. There are very small wild populations of these unusual things," said Schulhof, who will be lecturing on this topic at 3 p.m. Feb. 28.
He also visited the Vietnamese National Tea Germ Plasm Collection, where more than 100 kinds of tea plants are preserved, "many with quite attractive small flowers."
Ornamental camellia shrubs will be for sale at the exhibition, and if you want to try your hand with them, consider joining the Camellia Society or at least asking its helpful members for advice. Growing camellias here is a challenge because they are not hardy in New England, except in some sheltered locations on the Cape and Islands. They are not happy as houseplants, either. They need a cool home in the winter, with evening temperatures down to 45 degrees and daytime temperatures not much warmer than 65. As the saying goes, if your camellias are comfortable, you probably aren't.
A cool greenhouse is the ideal place for them, but camellias' special needs can be met in barely heated sun porches or cool basements with added light. They like acid soil and humidity, but not permanently damp soil.
Massachusetts Camellia Society president Sandra Kautz fell for camellias when she attended the Society's exhibition in 1967 "because they're knock-out blooms in the middle of the winter." Like most of us, she lacks a greenhouse, so she grows hers in the basement of her of Roslindale home in a window with a southwest exposure augmented by a compact 2700K fluorescent light. "It stays between 45 and 55 degrees down there, which is the critical part." She also uses a fan and a humidifier.
"Some people put them in barely heated enclosed patios that don't freeze and stay in that 40- to 60-degree range," Kautz said. "There are various kinds of attached greenhouses that get enough radiant heat from the house to grow them. A former president of our group grows them in a five-sided glass enclosure outside the front entrance of her house, so you walk through the greenhouse to get in the front door. It's a glass foyer." In the summer, Kautz moves her camellias outdoors into shady spots and feeds them with fertilizer for acid-loving plants.
"The camellia show is a great Boston tradition, and we have such a great group of people here in the Society," said Schulhof. "Cultivated camellias are such a cheering presence during the harsh winter."
The magnificent Orangerie at Worcester County Horticulture Society's Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, also has camellias and other winter plants in bloom. Additionally, a "Kaleidoscope of Color" exhibit is featuring semi-tropical plants with unusual foliage through Feb. 16. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and admission is $8 for adults (call 508-869-6111 or visit www.towerhillbg.org).
The historic Lyman Estate greenhouses, built in 1820 and maintained by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, is another place to view blooming camellias. Located at 185 Lyman St., Waltham, it is open Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Donations are encouraged (781-891-4882, Ex. 244).
Nuccio's Nurseries (P.O. Box 6160, 355 Chaney Trail, Altadena, Ca, 9100; phone: 626-794-3383) is the premier mail-order source for camellias. It's a family business that has specialized in camellias for generations.
