Camellia sasanqua 'White Doves'

Theaceae
Evergreen, Shrubs

CAMELLIA

Native to eastern and southern Asia. There are over 3,000 named kinds, and the range in color, size, and form is remarkable. The genus includes the plant from which we get tea, but most garden plants are robust shrubs that flower in winter or spring.

 

Camellia sasanqua

 

Useful broadleafed evergreens for espaliers, ground covers, informal hedges, screening, containers, and bonsai. Plants vary in form from spreading and vinelike to upright and densely bushy; sizes range from 1 1/2 ft. high and 6 ft. wide to 12 ft. tall and wide. Leaves are dark green, shiny, 1 1/2–3 1/2 in. long, a third as wide. Flowers, heavily produced in autumn and early winter, are short lived, rather flimsy, but so numerous that plants make a show for months. Some are lightly fragrant.

Most sasanquas tolerate much sun, and some will thrive in full hot sun with the right soil and regular water. The sasanquas are hardy in camellia areas of Pacific Northwest, but flowers are too often damaged by fall and winter rains and frost to call them successful.

 

'White Doves'

Large, full semidouble to peony-form flower. Drops many buds. Spreading, willowy growth makes it effective as espalier.