Camellia reticulata x fraterna 'Crimson Candles'

There is a quiet poetry in a camellia's defiance of the cold, a flowering that comes not in spring's abundance but in the leanest stretch of the year. Few cultivars speak that winter sonnet as clearly as Camellia 'Crimson Candles', a hybrid of Camellia reticulata and Camellia fraterna.

The cross came from the careful hands of Dr. Clifford Parks of Camellia Forest Nursery, a pivotal figure in American camellia breeding with deep ties to research at the University of North Carolina and to the practical art of propagation. Parks set out to expand what camellias could be and where they could thrive, pairing the grandeur of Camellia reticulata, long cultivated in the temples and mountains of Yunnan, with the cold hardiness and free-flowering nature of Camellia fraterna, a smaller, white-flowered species of humble but enduring qualities.

The result proved as resilient as it is lovely: a shrub that blooms through Southern winters with upright rose-pink flowers rising like lit tapers in the grey season, aptly named for the candle-shaped buds and luminous color. From the Carolinas to California, 'Crimson Candles' is prized as one of the earliest camellias to flower, opening in December or January and carrying into February in zone 7 and warmer. Unlike the many camellias that droop or hang shyly downward, this cultivar holds the blossoms upright and alert, unbothered by the chill, the tidy dark evergreen foliage setting off the vivid flowers like velvet behind a gemstone. Compact at six to ten feet, dense and well-furnished, the plant suits a woodland border, a foundation, or a part-shaded bed in moist, acidic soil, a living bridge between Chinese mountains and the Southern garden. The Royal Horticultural Society granted the cultivar an Award of Garden Merit in 2012.