Camellias are often confined to woodland gardens, where they make substantial shrubs with large flowers. In terms of appearance and adaptability, though, Camellia rosthorniana ‘Elina’ could not be more different.
Weeping branches give it an elegant, shapely look. With very small leaves for a camellia, its lustrous foliage is neat all year round, complemented by bronze-flushed new growth in spring. This provides the perfect backdrop to the small, bell-shaped flowers, which appear from February to April. It is even effective before this, each branch being bejewelled with tiny, pearl-like flower buds.
Eventually making a shrub no more than 1.5m across, with a slower growth rate than other camellias, it would also make a good container plant. Camellias need an acidic soil to thrive, so for places with alkaline soil, pot growing…
