CAMELIA sasanqua

This robust and stylish aristocrat of the garden is often passed by in favor of its more familiar cousin, Camellia japonica. While it's true that the "japonicas" have larger flowers, Camellia sasanqua has just as many endearing attributes. Like the japonicas, sasanquas have been selected and hybridized into dozens of forms that vary immensely in flower color and size and shape. Sasanquas bear profusions of flowers in fall and early winter depending on cultivar and location. In general they blossom before C. japonica.