The Camellia Society of the Potomac Valley was founded in Washington, D.C. nearly 70 years ago and is dedicated to one of the most beautiful of all garden plants: the ornamental camellia.
Camellias are native to Japan, Korea, China and southeast Asia. This range includes cold and snowy regions as well as tropical climates, demonstrating the camellia’s flexibility as a genus.
Since antiquity, the leaves of C. sinensis have been harvested in Asia for tea, and the seeds of C. japonica, C. sasanqua and C. oleifera pressed to extract oil for cooking and cosmetics. They were also admired for the beauty of their blooms: the Higo cultivar was known as the “flower of the samurai” and centuries-old camellias grace temples and palace gardens. In fact, geishas traditionally used camellia oil to dress their elaborate coiffures.
While there are examples of these species of camellias at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. and other public gardens, the types of camellias found in gardens here are generally the ornamental C. japonica (spring blooming) and C. sasanqua or vernalis (fall- and winter-blooming).
The camellia has enchanted Western horticulturists and gardeners since the late 17th century when the first seeds and plants were sent to wealthy collectors in England. The camellia was named by Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus for the Jesuit missionary and naturalist Georg Joseph Kamel, who spent 20 years in the Philippines but may never have seen the plant which bears his name.
Many of CSPV’s early members were transplants from the South or from California, where the culture of the camellia was strong. They found that some of their much-loved blooming shrubs from home could thrive in the mild marine climate along the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. And when two severe freezes in the 1970s killed or damaged much of the National Arboretum’s camellia collection, the late Dr. William Ackerman of the Agricultural Research Service of USDA stepped up to develop new cold-hardy hybrids.
Camellias in our northern in our region can offer three seasons of blooming interest (spring, fall and winter) and handsome evergreen foliage in summer. While gardeners in the outer Washington suburbs may need to provide winter protection for their young plants, in the densely built close-in communities such as Alexandria, Virginia this may not even be necessary.
Today, cold-hardy camellias flourish even further north than the Mason-Dixon line. Camellias are among the plantings in Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum north of Philadelphia, and the cultivar “Long Island Pink” can be found in New York.