If you are looking for year-round greenery and incredible blooms during the cooler months of the year, there is no better plant than camellia. These subtropical plants used to be hard to find in our area, but now they're more popular than ever because of our warmer winters and new, cold-hardy varieties. The shrubs are beloved for their glossy leaves that stay green all year long, and their incredibly unique blooming requirements. Most flowering plants need a sunny spot and bloom in warmer weather, but not camellias! These bright blooms open up in cool weather and grow best in a shady part of the garden.

There are more than 20,000 recognized camellias varieties, each with different flower shapes, sizes, colors, and blooming times - but nearly all of them have a blooming window sometime between October to May. If you’re short on space, or want to “collect them all” and grow many types of camellia, you are in luck! Their slow growth habit makes them perfect for containers.

How to grow camellia in containers

Visit the Camellia house at Planting Fields in Oyster Bay, NY! The Camellia house is open 6 days a week (closed on Tuesday). It's the largest collection of camellias in the region and some specimen are more than 100 years old.