April Dawn Camellia

Year-round gardens are our focus here at Greenleaf. From January to December, we want gardeners to find joy in their landscape, from the earliest blooms to unique fall foliage to trusted evergreen foundation plants. Today we're featuring fantastic late winter bloomers, Camellias.

Attract consumers to your garden center with a burst of late winter color from Camellias this month. These evergreen shrubs look great year round, requiring little pruning or maintenance. Pair our earliest bloomers, Camellia sasanqua, with early spring bloomers, Camellia japonica, for color right up to spring.

Hana Jiman is a sasanqua variety that features fragrant, semi-double white blooms with pink edging against deep green foliage. It is offered in #3 and #7 sizes from our North Carolina location. And for a more formal look, japonica White by the Gate boasts large white double blooms on dark green foliage. It is available in #1 from our Texas location.

New cold hardy varieties of Camellias enable gardeners further north to enjoy these fantastic plants as well. The April series are cold hardy to USDA Zone 6 and named for the time they bloom in that climate. April Dawn has a heavy bud set of pink and white variegated formal double blooms. Similarly April Kiss boasts a heavy bud set of pinkish-red formal double blooms. And April Tryst features fragrant red, anemone form flowers. All three are available in #7 from our North Carolina location

Because their foliage looks great year round, also consider selecting Camellias with a unique growth habit. Winter’s Snowman, a white flowering variety, is upright and columnar, reaching 12 feet tall and only 5 feet wide. Our North Carolina location has a crop of #3 available. And rose-pink Kanjiro offers a vigorous semi-weeping habit with dark green foliage that is perfect for foundation plantings.