Stewartia malacodendron

Stewartia malacodendron is a much sought native deciduous shrub, and one of only two stewartias native to the United States. The species sits in Theaceae, the tea family, so the kinship with Camellia is real and visible the moment the flowers open: white, three inches across, built like a single rose, with a boss of purple-filamented stamens around blue anthers at the center. Nothing else in an American woodland looks remotely like it. The plant is found mostly on streamside slopes in rich woods and is widely scattered in spots from Virginia to Florida and west to Texas, never in stands, usually as three to ten plants in a place. Bloom comes in early summer, a flower or two at a time over several weeks, and the autumn foliage turns orange to red.

If it were easy to grow, this would be a standard landscape plant rather than a special sought-after connoisseur plant. Three things stand in the way. Growth is slow. Propagation is difficult. And the roots deeply resent disturbance, which makes transplanting an established plant close to hopeless and means a young container-grown one should go into its permanent position and stay there. Add to that a genuine intolerance of hot afternoon sun and you have a species that has stayed rare in gardens for the entire time it has been in cultivation, which is since 1752.

Because seed is the only practical route and good seed is hard to come by, every batch we have grown has come from friends. Jack Johnston, Mike Creel, and Dylan Tilton have all shared collections with us over the years, and the plants offered here exist because of that generosity. It is worth saying plainly: a plant this difficult stays in circulation only when people who grow it pass seed along.

The names carry their own small histories. Stewartia honors John Stuart, the third Earl of Bute and a serious patron of botany, though Linnaeus spelled the name with a w and the rules of nomenclature have kept his spelling ever since. Malacodendron is Greek for soft tree, from malakos and dendron, and refers to the silky hairs on the undersides of the leaves; the same character gives the common name silky camellia. Populations have declined enough that the species is listed as endangered in Arkansas and Florida, which makes nursery-propagated plants worth something beyond their garden value.

Happy in the garden once established in neutral to slightly acid sandy soil with good drainage, adequate moisture, and shade from hot afternoon sun. Site with real care, because you will not get to move the plant later: high filtered shade or a spot with morning sun and afternoon shelter, ideally on a slope where drainage is certain and the soil never bakes. Mulch generously and permanently, water through dry spells for years rather than months, and resist digging anywhere near the root zone. Good in a woodland garden with Hydrangea quercifolia, Illicium, Rhododendron, and ferns. This is a plant to buy small, plant once, and wait for.