Cameil's Camellia's
Genus Camellia is well-known mainly because of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, and large-flowering Camellia japonica. However sasanqua does not hybridize readily with them and horticulturaly should be considered a distinctively different plant.
Sasanqua's sister, Camellia japonica is a winter-flowering plant with glamorous flowers suited for cutting flower shows. Japonica likes shade and should be combined with other shade-loving plants like azaleas and ferns.
On the other hand, sasanqua has more gentle flowers, frequently with delicate tea scent. Sasanqua's flowers are less suitable as cut flowers, because their petals are easier to drop then japonica's petals. But sasanqua flowers are produced in great profusion and sasanqua plant looks marvelously in the garden. Sasanqua loves sun and can be combined with roses. It is a winning combination - roses bloom from spring to early fall, sasanquas bloom from early fall to winter.
Closest relative of sasanqua is Camellia oleifera, a tea-oil camellia, used to make cooking and cosmetic oil in Southern China. Oleifera readily hybridizes with sasanqua as well as with other closely related species - C. miyagii, C. kissii, C. brevistyla and others. Oleifera is a parent of "Ackerman hybrids" - a group of cold-tolerant cultivars developed by Dr. William Ackerman for gardeners in relatively colder places, like Washington DC. more>
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| Camellia sasanqua 'White Doves' |
There are three most recent classification systems of the genus Camellia frequently referred in Camellia literature: Sealy 1958 [4], Chang 1981 [1] and Ming 2000 [3].
J. Robert Sealy divided genus Camellia into 12 species group (sections). He put C. sasanqua, C. oleifera and C. kissi into section Paracamellia, C. hiemalis and C. miyagii into unplaced (artificial) section Dubiae.
In 1971 Dr. William L. Ackerman shown in his article [5] that C. hiemalis and C. miyagii freely hybridize with species of section Paracamellia and suggested they should be in one section.
Chang Hung Ta (1981, [1]) divided genus Camellia into four subgenera and 20 sections. He put C. sasanqua and C. oleifera into section Oleifera of Camellia subgenus. Then he put C. kissi and C. miyagii into section Paracamellia of the same subgenus and C. hiemalis into section Camellia subsection Reticulata of the same genus.
Xiao Tiaojiang and Clifford Parks (2002, [10]) doubted Chang's reasons for dividing Paracamellia into two sections (Paracamellia and Oleifera). They noticed that wild forms of C. sasanqua (Changs's section Oleifera) and C. miyagii (Chang's section Paracamellia) are virtually identical and can be considered a one species. They also did DNA sequence analysis and found all species of Changs's Oleifera section to be clustered with a group of species in Paracamellia section.
Xiao Tiaojiang and Clifford Parks also shown by DNA analysis that some of Chang's Paracamellia species may be in fact not belonging to Paracamellia section, for example C. grijsii, C. odorata and C. yusienensis. They fall into the clade of section Camellia species from Western China. more>
Welcome to our photo collection of sasanqua cultivars. There are five main groups of sasanquas - "true" C. sasanqua, C. hiemalis, C. vernalis, group of hybrids with common name 'Egao', and cold-tolerant sasanqua-oleifera Ackerman hybrids.
C. hiemalis and C. vernalis are probably originated from back-crossing of some ancient natural sasanqua-japonica hybrids back to sasanqua. C. hiemalis include popular double and peony-form cultivars like 'Shishi Gashira', 'Showa No Sakae' and 'Kanjiro'. C. vernalis include the only true red sasanqua 'Yuletide', originated as a seedling of popular in Australia cultivar 'Hiryu' (australians incorrectly call it 'Kanjiro').
Many books include 'Egao' and related cultivars ('Shibori-Egao', 'Egao Corkscrew', 'Grady's Egao') into sasanqua group of camellias. However scientific research suggests that 'Egao' is a complicated back-cross of japonica-sasanqua hybrids back to japonica. 'Egao' looks, sun-tolerance, flower size and texture, flowering season are in-between sasanqua and japonica. more>
Well-known sasanqua breeders include:
1. Nuccio's
Nurseries's founders Joseph and Julius Nuccio, and their children Tom, Jim,
and Julius, all living in Southern California. The
2. Dr. William L. Ackerman studied genetics of camellias since 1960s and created cold-tolerant cultivars using Camellia oleifera as a parent. Our favorite Ackerman's hybrid is 'Winter's Rose' - a beautiful formal pink miniature sasanqua. Dr. Ackerman lives in Maryland, pictures of some of his cultivars are available on the website of a local Camellia Society of the Potomac Valley and on the website of the National Arboretum. We also prepared a photo album of some of his cultivars based on pictures Dr.Ackerman donated to us for publication.
3. Camellia Forest Nursery, Clifford Parks, David Parks and Kai Mei created sasanqua-reticulata hybrids, including 'Kai Mei's Choice'. Clifford Parks wrote many articles about Camellia genetics. They are located in North Carolina.
4. Paradise Plants, John Robb created beautiful sasanqua cultivars in Australia, including Paradise Sayaka and dwarf Paradise Baby Jane. Unfortunately Paradise Camellias are not available in the United States at this moment, but will be available soon via Ball Seed Company, the contact name is Peter Kruger.
4. Tom Dodd Nurseries, Inc was started in 1920 with 40 acres of land by Tom Dodd, Sr. The nursery remained owned by the Dodd family until August of 2004 when it was purchased by Jack Williams and John Williams, owners of Twin Oaks Nursery in Wilmer, AL. Tom Dodd Nurseries introduced a dozen of new sasanqua cultivars.
