Photo: Mac H. Alford, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Silky Camellia

Stewartia malacodendron

Also called Virginia stewartia, round-fruited stewartia, silky stewartia.

White flowers about 3 inches across, with purple stamens and blue anthers, on a rare shrub of southern coastal plain woods.

Showy flowersRareTolerates shadeWinter interest

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 10–15 ft
USDA zones: 6–9
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average
Grows wild in: The forest understory, rich moist slopes and stream banks
Native range: 10 states, north to Virginia, south to Florida and west to Texas
List all 10
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia
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Silky camellia is a spreading shrub or small tree of the southern coastal plain, a distant relative of the garden camellia, named for the silky hairs under its leaves. It is uncommon throughout its range, where it grows a few plants to a site. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Texas and Arkansas. It ranks as imperiled in Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana. It has a name for being hard to grow, but a well-sited plant in bloom ranks among the most beautiful natives of the South. Its peeling, cinnamon-colored bark draws the eye in winter. Grow it as a specimen at a woodland edge or beside a shaded path, where the flowers can be seen up close.

Size, growth and what to expect

Silky camellia grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes a shrub or small tree 10 to 15 feet tall, with wide branches that spread 15 to 25 feet. In the wild it reaches 23 feet.

Silky camellia flowers in May and June, sometimes from late March into August. Each flower is about 3 inches across and up to 4, with five white, crimp-edged petals around 50 to 100 purple stamens tipped with blue anthers. The round, woody capsule, about half an inch long, ripens in early fall, and birds and small mammals spread the shiny brown seeds.

It grows wild on the coastal plain from southeast Virginia to the Florida panhandle and west to Louisiana. Outlying stands grow in Arkansas and east Texas. Its home is shaded bluffs, ravine slopes, creek banks and the upper terraces of floodplains that seldom flood.

How to grow Silky Camellia

Silky camellia wants part shade, with morning sun and deep shade through the heat of the day, as under tall trees. It needs a rich, acid soil, loamy or sandy, that stays moist but drains well. Plant it 15 feet from a wall, and space several 15 feet apart, since the branches spread wide.

Saplings ship potted. Plant in the dormant season, and disturb the root ball as little as you can, since it resents being moved. Dig a hole twice the width of the ball and no deeper, and set the top of the ball level with the ground. Put the native soil back in, and mulch over the roots, clear of the stems. Seed needs a warm spell and then a cold one. Sow it fresh in fall in a sheltered outdoor bed, and expect seedlings the second spring or later. Few seeds come up, and the seedlings grow slowly.

Water weekly through the first three summers and in every dry spell after that. Keep a mulch of leaves over the roots. Deer browse young shrubs, so fence it for the first few years. Prune only dead or broken wood.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female trees to pair. Bees and butterflies visit silky camellia flowers for pollen. A related stewartia sets seed with its own pollen, so one plant can bear alone, but a second plant nearby gives a better crop. It has no serious pests or diseases. It can be short-lived where the site does not suit it.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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