Recently introduced evergreen cultivars with good potential

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I'm in zone 5b, which is quite a bit colder than what most Camellia will survive. Most winters we have a few nights that drop to -10 F, ( - 23 C ). This is quite a bit colder than what Camellia like. I winter my deciduous trees in an unheated well house. The well house is underground, its roof is the patio in my back yard. It is dark, with no light, and tends to stay between 32 F and 40 F all winter. It is a little difficult for me to get in and out of, so I don't open it daily, usually only once or twice a month, once everything is nestled in there.

This is fine for deciduous trees, and the few "tender" pines, like JBP. But Camellia are active, and will flower when temperatures are just barely above freezing. They need light in their dormancy, and you want them to be where you can see them in winter, so you don't miss the flowering. When I winter them in with my orchids, under lights, they did fine, except my orchids are on a once a week watering schedule, and the Camellias were on an every other day watering schedule. I was frequently forgetting to get downstairs to the under lights set up, to water the Camellias, when everything else needed to wait a few days before the next watering. Dry a Camellia out several times in the course of a couple months, and it is just not going to bounce back from that. That is the problem of having hundreds of orchids, you forget about individuals, you tend to have the whole collection on a cycle, and water the whole collection all at once. I suppose if I potted the Camellias in nursery pots, so they only needed once a week watering, I could winter them with the orchids. But I simply have not tried again. I only tried a few Camellia, once, and have not tried again. I will someday, just not this year.

 

[Carol 83]

@Carol 83 don't worry if you want, show it, what cultivar is it? I have a few very young ones

Finally got it yesterday. Doesn't seem any worse for wear after spending a week in a box.

 

[ThornBc]

@Carol 83 aw that's nice! Other than a few C. "Fairy Blush" I mentioned above, I have a couple of cultivars of C. japonica, they are just sticks with big leaves and I'll probably grow them as potted shrubs.
@Leo in N E Illinois that sounds pretty cold, I've never even experienced -23c! Out of curiosity, how hot does it get in summer there?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@Carol 83 aw that's nice! Other than a few C. "Fairy Blush" I mentioned above, I have a couple of cultivars of C. japonica, they are just sticks with big leaves and I'll probably grow them as potted shrubs.
@Leo in N E Illinois that sounds pretty cold, I've never even experienced -23c! Out of curiosity, how hot does it get in summer there?

The Midwest of USA is considered pretty brutal. We have intensely cold winters and can have intensely hot summers. Thankfully where I live, half way between Chicago and Milwaukee, my climate gets some moderation from the Great Lakes. In summer we can get quite hot, the record is about 103 F, or roughly +39 C. But that type of heat is rare. Normally we have fewer than 10 days per year over 90F, or fewer than ten days over+32 C. Some years we only have one or two days over 32 C. There are various jokes about the weather here, Chicago is called the Windy City, and if you don't like the weather just wait a few hours. One of the good things is there are dramatic, sharp differences between the seasons. Autumn in particular can have beautiful color to the foliage. We have had snow on the ground pretty much since CHristmas, so for the last 4 weeks. Further south, snow only lasts a few days, but here it is sticking. Actually our snow getting "old", as it is getting dirty, the piles from my neighbor's dog are pretty obvious on my lawn. We need a fresh layer of snow to cover up. LOL

 

[ThornBc]

@Leo in N E Illinois thanks for explaining! You're right about the value of seasonal changes and not the first person to point it out to me when I'd say I'd rather live somewhere sunnier and warmer. I'm used to Milan's weather, in Italy, which used to be cold winters and hot summers with defined in-between seasons of mild weather. It's definitely changed in the past decades though, a lot more instances of subtropical-like extreme weather, stuff that in northern Italy we had always associated with more exotic places. Here in Scotland, where I live, the weather is a different thing. It's proper oceanic climate so very voluble, very wet, with mild summers and cool to cold winters. It's changing here too though from what I gathered between my experience and older people, getting warmer with the more extreme weather heat brings.