Camellia × williamsii 'Jury's Yellow'

Bred by Les Jury in New Plymouth, New Zealand, first flowered in 1971 and registered in 1976, 'Jury's Yellow' is the camellia that finally cracked the yellow code, or came as close as Western breeders could get before the Chinese yellow species (Camellia nitidissima) made the leap from botanical archive to nursery bench. Jury worked only with white japonicas, betting that the gold of the stamens could be coaxed to bleed into the petaloids at a flower's center. The bet paid off. The result is an anemone-form bloom, nine clean white petals cupped around a thick boss of cream-yellow petaloids, the color of fresh butter rather than crayon yellow.

Strictly speaking this is less a yellow camellia than a white camellia with a yellow heart, and that is the version with staying power. 'Gwenneth Morey' and 'Brushfield's Yellow' came out of Australia around the same time, yet 'Jury's Yellow' still turns up on the honors tables at the National Camellia Show in China nearly fifty years after registration. Among Les Jury's introductions, this was also one of the first to be self-grooming: the spent blooms drop cleanly rather than turning to brown sludge on the bush, which sounds minor and is, in truth, the difference between a camellia that earns a place and one a gardener politely ignores for nine months a year.

The plant carries an upright, dense habit and dark glossy foliage, holding shape without much intervention and reading beautifully in winter against a pewter sky and bare-limbed trees. We have found 'Jury's Yellow' gracious in part shade, especially under the high canopy of pines or oaks, a forgiving anchor for a woodland border, a courtyard planting, or that particular gap beside a doorway that wants evergreen weight without volume. For the gardener who already has the reds and pinks and is ready for the quieter, more deliberate end of the camellia palette.