Scientific: Camellia Japonica
Flowers: Large blooms in fall, winter, and spring depending on the cultivar.
Red, white, pink, or variegated depending on cultivar.
Growth Habit: 6' to 10' tall. Some cultivars get much taller.
Leaves: Alternate. Thick and serrated along the margin. Black gland at the tip of serrations. Leaves 3" to 5" long. Leaves and twigs are glabrous. Leaves widest below the middle or in the middle.
Hardy to zone 7. Likes acid soils with good drainage in part shade. Tea scale is the major insect problem on this species. It colonizes under the leaf and sucks the plant sap causing yellow blotches to appear on the leaf. The brown scales are the female and the white scales are the males. Many times the cultivars of this species are grafted onto Camellia sasanqua rootstock.

Camilla Japonica - Camellia japonica (the Japanese camellia) is one of the best known species of the genus Camellia. Sometimes called the Rose of winter, it belongs to the Theaceae family.

1. Flowers used in weddings to symbolize longevity and faithfulness.
2. Camillia’s can live over 200 years.
3. Native to Asia.
4. The leaves are used to make teas.
5. The seeds are cold pressed to extract an oil used to protect cutting tools with it’s anticorrosive properties.
6. It is the official state flower of Alabama.