This week’s column is dedicated to a different kind of “sport fishing.” Those involved in this type of sport fishing are after the rarest of the rare. They seek those individuals that shimmer with a slightly different hue and/or shape from the majority of the species, those whose genetic coding may be somewhat different from the norm.

Great care is taken to keep the catch alive and healthy, the idea being to propagate this rare catch into a variety of its own. This can often be a tricky proposition. Unless the captured specimen’s genetic coding is quite stable, there is a tendency for subsequent generations to revert back to the normal color and shape of the parent group.

With perseverance, skill and luck, however, totally new and stable varieties may be created. Some varieties created through the years by dedicated sports fishermen include Elegans Supreme, Elegans Champagne, Barbara Woodroof, Betty Sheffield Dawn and Blond Betty.

OK, I guess the jig is up. These dedicated fishermen are camellia growers. The “sports” they are fishing for are bud sports.

It is not uncommon in certain families of plants, especially cultivars, to have different physical characteristics on the same plant. Often, these differences are slight and go unnoticed. However, when the flower is involved, these differences become quite noticeable. On camellias, these mutant flowers are known as sports.

Cultivars are more susceptible to sporting than native species for a couple of reasons. They are usually the product of a lot of “in” crossing and “out” crossing, and as a result have a greater genetic variance than natives.

Also, in the natural world sports tend to have a low survival rate. In the garden, though, they are prized and maintained through various means of vegetative propagation.

The camellia originated in subtropical China. Camellia sinensis is the common tea plant. According to Chinese legend, the use of tea as a beverage dates back to Emperor Shen Nong, 2737-2705 BC.

It was the beverage, not the flower, that brought camellia to America. Processed tea was brought to America in the mid-1600s. It is believed that the first camellia seeds, Camellia sinensis, were planted in the Trust Gardens in Savannah, Ga., in 1744. Tea plants were known from Skidaway Island, near Savannah, prior to 1805. Tea was also grown in Charleston in the early 1800s but it never flourished as a crop.

The first flowering camellia, Camellia japonicas, was believed to be imported to Hoboken, N.J., in 1797 or 1798. This subtropical plant was definitely a greenhouse cultivar in New Jersey at that time, but by the 1830s southern plantations such as Magnolia Gardens and Middleton Place near Charleston were incorporating camellias in the landscape. Both have spectacular displays today.

Camellia japonica and its hybrids produce the most sports. Several hundred horticultural varieties have been created from this species by dedicated fishermen.

Although still primarily a southern plant, recent research has developed several varieties that are hardy to Zones 6 and 7, which include most of WNC. Nine of these varieties listed by the International Camellia Society are: Polar Ice, Snow Flurry, Winter’s Charme, Winter’s Dream, Winter’s Hope, Winter’s Interlude, Winter’s Rose, Winter’s Star and Winter’s Waterlily.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News