'' is rare in the wild but has been cultivated for hundreds of years.
Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, is of major commercial importance because
tea is made from its leaves. The species
C. sinensis is the product of many generations of
selective breeding to bring out desirable qualities for tea. However, many other camellias can be used to produce a similar beverage. For example, tea made from
C. sasanqua leaves is popular in some parts of Japan. Seeds of
C. oleifera,
C. japonica, and, to a lesser extent, other species such as
C. crapnelliana,
C. reticulata,
C. sasanqua and
C. sinensis as well are pressed to make
tea seed oil, a sweet seasoning and cooking oil special to East Asia. It is the most important
cooking oil for hundreds of millions of people, particularly in southern China.
Camellia oil is commonly used to clean and protect the blades of cutting instruments.
Camellia oil pressed from seeds of
C. japonica, also called tsubaki oil or in Japanese, has been traditionally used in Japan for hair care.
C. japonica plant is used to prepare traditional anti-inflammatory medicines.
Garden history Camellias were cultivated in the gardens of China for centuries before they were seen in Europe. The German botanist
Engelbert Kaempfer reported that the "Japan Rose", as he called it, grew wild in woodland and hedgerow, but that many superior varieties had been selected for gardens. Europeans' earliest views of camellias must have been their representations in Chinese painted wallpapers, where they were often represented growing in porcelain pots. The first living camellias seen in England were a single red and a single white, grown and flowered in his garden at
Thorndon Hall, Essex, by
Robert James, Lord Petre, among the keenest gardeners of his generation, in 1739. His gardener
James Gordon was the first to introduce camellias to commerce, from the nurseries he established after Lord Petre's untimely death in 1743, at Mile End, Essex, near London. With the expansion of the
tea trade in the later 18th century, new varieties began to be seen in England, imported through the
British East India Company. The company's John Slater was responsible for the first of the new camellias, double ones, in white and a striped red, imported in 1792. Further camellias imported in the East Indiamen were associated with the patrons whose gardeners grew them: a double red for Sir Robert Preston in 1794 and the pale pink named "Lady Hume's Blush" for Amelia, the lady of
Sir Abraham Hume of
Wormleybury, Hertfordshire (1806). The camellia was imported from England to America in 1797 when
Colonel John Stevens brought the flower as part of an effort to grow attractions within
Elysian Fields in
Hoboken,
New Jersey. By 1819, twenty-five camellias had bloomed in England; that year the first monograph appeared, Samuel Curtis's,
A Monograph on the Genus Camellia, whose five handsome folio colored illustrations have usually been removed from the slender text and framed. Though they did not flower for over a decade, camellias that set seed rewarded their growers with a wealth of new varieties. By the 1840s, the camellia was at the height of its fashion as
the luxury flower. The Parisian courtesan
Marie Duplessis, who died young in 1847, inspired Dumas'
La Dame aux camélias and Verdi's
La Traviata. The fashionable imbricated formality of prized camellias was an element in their decline, replaced by the new hothouse
orchid. Their revival after World War I as woodland shrubs for mild climates has been paralleled by the rise in popularity of
Camellia sasanqua.
Modern cultivars The tea camellia,
C. sinensis, has been selected by
many commercial cultivars for the taste of its leaves once processed into tea leaves. Today, camellias are grown as ornamental plants for their flowers; about 3,000
cultivars and
hybrids have been selected, many with
double or semi-double flowers.
C. japonica is the most prominent species in cultivation, with over 2,000 named cultivars. Next are
C. reticulata with over 400 named cultivars, and
C. sasanqua with over 300 named cultivars. Popular hybrids include
C. × hiemalis (
C. japonica ×
C. sasanqua) and
C. × williamsii (
C. japonica ×
C. saluenensis). Some varieties can grow considerably, up to , though more compact cultivars are available. They are frequently planted in woodland settings alongside other
calcifuges, such as
rhododendrons. They are particularly associated with areas of high soil acidity, such as Cornwall and Devon in the UK. They are highly valued for their very early flowering, often among the first flowers to appear in the late winter. Late
frosts can damage the flower buds, resulting in misshapen flowers. There is a great variety of flower forms: • single (flat, bowl- or cup-shaped) • semi-double (rows of large outer petals, with the centre comprising mixed petals and stamens) • double: • peony form (convex mass of irregular petals and petaloids with hidden stamens) • anemone form (one or more rows of outer petals, with mixed petaloids and stamens in the centre) • rose form (overlapping petals showing stamens in a concave centre when open) • formal double (rows of overlapping petals with hidden stamens)
AGM cultivars The following hybrid cultivars have gained the
Royal Horticultural Society's
Award of Garden Merit: File:Camellia x williamsii 'Brigadoon'.JPG|Simple-flowered
Camellia × williamsii 'Brigadoon' File:Semi-double Camelia cultivar.jpg|Semi-double-flowered
Camellia cultivar File:PinkCamelliaJaponica.jpg|Double-flowered
Camellia cultivar File:Camellia hyb Yuri s Yellow Kalenderkopie.jpg|Double-flowered hybrid
Camellia 'Jury's Yellow' ==Cultural significance==