Purple Haze Camellia

A wonderful early-blooming shrub, the Purple Haze Camellia blooms early in the season, so it’s great for brightening the late months of winter, bridging the gap between your sasanqua camellias in fall and the Japanese ones in spring. In fact, it is a hybrid between them, giving you the best of both worlds, with gorgeous double flowers like roses, in a striking shade of soft purple, blooming with profusion even on young plants. The 3-inch diameter flowers simply smother the bush in amazing color, and this plant stays relatively small, so it’s a great choice if you are planning to grow it in a pot. That way you can avoid issues with the ‘right’ soil, watering problems, and cold winters – you can grow it in any zone if you have a cool, bright, frost-free place for it for winter. The richly colored evergreen foliage makes a lovely plant, even when not in flower, and every year you will watch those expanding flower buds, waiting for the arrival of the lovely blooms.

• Gorgeous rose-like flowers of stunning light-purple
• Flowers in late winter, before most other camellias
• Compact and very suitable for growing in a pot
• More tolerant of sun and poorer soil conditions
• Should be grown in acidic soil

You can grow the Purple Haze Camellia in full sun, but it will also grow in partial or full shade if it isn’t dense – under deciduous trees is better than under evergreens. It should be planted in rich, moist, well-drained soil that is acidic, with a pH value of 6.0 or less. If you don’t have suitable soil, or live in a colder zone, grow it in a pot – it’s ideal for that – and keep it in a cool, bright place for the winter, where it will bloom even earlier, and be protected from weather damage. Ignored by deer, and usually free of pests or diseases, once you have the soil and light-levels good, everything else is easy. Use prepared soil for lime-hating plants, if in a pot, and fertilizer with azalea or camellia food in spring and early summer, not later. If you need or want to trim it, do so straight after flowering, before the new growth appears, and don’t trim new stems or you won’t see any flowers.