We love our collection of camellias, but are aware that most people think of them primarily for their flowers. We think the foliage is almost as amazing, when the plants are well grown. There are quite a few with variegated foliage, which give added value to the garden when the plants aren’t in flower. One of the finest in that regard is Camellia japonica ‘Koshi No Fubuki’. Below is a photo of it in late August, looking absolutely superb.
So pretty. I really like all different shades of green and the variegated foliage.
According to Ted Stephens, Koshi No Fubuki roughly means snowstorm/blizzard in/of Niigata Prefecture. On some of my leaves, I see some spotting (variegation) like snow. Any ideas on culture to promote more of the “snow variegation”?
Better light usually results in more variegation, but that’s about it.
Tony,
I’m building a mixed camellia screen and would like to include variegated varieties of C. japonica and C. sasanqua.
C. japonica are normally shade lovers, So better light here for your variegated specimen meaning, more open light-shade to dappled-shade or less than 4 hrs full morning sun or limited late pm sun, correct?
Have you tried any variegated C. sasanqua? A couple of examples are “Royal Flush Shi Shi Variegated Camellia Sasanqua” and “Camellia sasanqua ‘Golden Phoenix'”. C. sasanqua can generally take more sun than C. japonica, but does this hold for the variegated C. sasanqua cultivars?
Also, I’ve recently encountered some anti-variegation sentiment in the gardening world, and a few misinformed individuals believe all variegated plants are like the variegated Bradford Pear, variegated privet, and some variegated ground covers, that are fast spreaders and/or are invasive. Which reminds me of one of my favorite podcasts, Fine Gardening’s “Let’s Argue About Plants”, haha!
Thanks,
Greg
We have dozens of Camellia japonica cultivars growing in full sun, that look great. We’ve only found a few that need light shade. We also have C. sassanquas that grow fine in full sun. As a general rule, we find the variegated forms of both species prefer a bit of shade. If anything variegation generally slows the growth of a plant, from slightly to dramatically, depending on the amount of variegation.