Sazanka - The Flower of Autumn Sun

Found a Chinese website that sells rare Camellia books

Published on March 2, 2009 by Yuri Panchul. 0 Comments. Tags: books, China..

Although I don’t speak Chinese I was always curious to buy the book Monograph of The Genus Camellia 世界山茶属的研究 by Ming Tien-Lu (2000) since this is one of three main books about the botany of the genus Camellia. Two other books are A Revision of the Genus Camellia by J. Robert Sealy (1958) and Camellias by Chang Hung Ta and Bruce Bartholomew (1984).

And finally I found the book!

http://www.hceis.com/book.asp?id=1376

They also have a new book about sasanquas I was also looking for – Sasanqua (Cha Mei) 茶梅 by Xu Biyu and Lin Tianfei et al (2007).

http://www.hceis.com/book.asp?id=7319

Wow! Now I want to go to the nearby Foothill College to take an introductory course in Chinese (I was studying Japanese over there and it was very decent).

John Wang – a camellia hybridizer living in San Francisco Bay Area

Published on February 28, 2009 by Yuri Panchul. 1 Comment. Tags: California, China, East Bay, Grafting, growing seedlings, hybridizing, John Wang, San Francisco Bay Area, Tama no Ura, USA, yuhsienensis, 攸县油茶..

On January 25, 2009 I visited a well known camellia hybridizer John Wang, a Chinese American living in San Francisco Bay Area.

John Wang places camellias inside the house to hand pollinate them. Room temperature increases the chance of success and no insects can interfere. John does not believe in open pollination of camellias – he chooses parents very carefully because he cannot afford to plant thousands of chance seedlings like for example Nuccio’s Nurseries does:

This camellia hybrid, created by John Wang, is a seedling of Tama-no-ura:

Another seedling from John Wang has a rare yellow tint:

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A new catalog from Camellia Forest Nursery, Fall 2008 – my review

Published on October 4, 2008 by Yuri Panchul. 1 Comment. Tags: anthocyanin, Camellia Forest Nursery, Clifford Parks, David Parks, Gaisen, Kai Mei, low growing, Lu Shan Snow, Mieko Tanaka, Nanjing Botanical Garden, Nuccio's Nurseries, O'Nishiki, oleifera, Otome, Plain Jane, red, Shishigashira, single, Species, Takayuki Tanaka, true red, USA, Winter’s Red Rider, Winter’s Rose, Yuletide..

Camellia Forest Nursery is a nursery in North Carolina managed by Kai Mei and David Parks. Kai Mei is a wife of Dr. Clifford Parks (one of the authors of “Collected Species of the Genus Camellia”, 2005) and David Parks is their son.

Mieko Tanaka

The most interesting sasanqua hybrid offered this year is a true red ‘Mieko Tanaka’. Almost all previous “red” sasanquas were actually dark pinks (for example ‘Bonanza’ and ‘Reverend Ida’). The only previous true red was ‘Yuletide’, a chance seedling of Hiryu, originated in Nuccio’s Nurseries back in 1963.

The basic problem with red color is that wild C. sasanqua has no red (or pink) pigment – anthocyanin.

According to Dr. Takayuki Tanaka and other researchers, all pink sasanqua cultivars probably originated from an ancient C. japonica x sasanqua hybrid approximately 400 years ago almost definitely in Japan. The estimation 400 years comes from chloroplast genome DNA (cpDNA) analysis. Additionally, athocyanin chromatography demonstrates that all pink sasanquas (together with x hiemalis and x vernalis hybrids) share the form of anthocyanin with C. japonica and does not have pigments specific for C. reticulata and C. saluensis.

Based on this information, Dr. Tanaka was working on sasanqua-japonica hybridization and finally he developed a cultivar ‘Mieko Tanaka’ (C. x vernalis ‘Gaisen’ x C. japonica).

Plain Jane, O’Nishiki, Winter’s Rose and Winter’s Red Rider

Another important cultivar now available for sale in Camellia Forest Nursery is C. oleifera ‘Plain Jane’. This plain white flower has two distinctive quantities.

First of all, it is one of the most cold-hardy camellias, used by Dr. William Ackerman for his cold-hardiness hybridization program. For example, Dr. Ackerman claims that his cultivar ‘Winter’s Rose’ (C. oleifera ‘Plain Jane’ x C. x hiemalis ‘Otome’) can survive winter temperatures down to -15 F / -26 C.

Second, according to Dr. Ackerman, ‘Plain Jane’ may be used to create dwarf cultivars that are useful as patio and bonsai plants. Particularly, ‘Winter’s Rose’ is also a dwarf camellia. When Dr. Ackerman crossed ‘Plain Jane’ with C. sasanqua ‘O’Nishiki’, he got 3:1 mendelian ratio between normal and dwarf seedlings. This suggested that both ‘Plain Jane’ and ‘O’Nishiki’ carry heterozygous alleles of a dwarfiness gene. (Yes, I know that both plants are hexaploids – so an additional explanation from Dr. Ackerman is needed).

Luckily I got cuttings of ‘O’Nishiki’ last Summer from Mr. Garet Uemura who lives in Hawaii. Thank you, Mr. Uemura!
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Found an interesting article about a Japanese-American nurseryman Toichi Domoto

Published on September 17, 2008 by Yuri Panchul. 3 Comments. Tags: bonsai, California, Dwarf Shishi, East Bay, Ernest Wertheim, history, Japan, Julius Nuccio, Nurseries, San Francisco Bay Area, Suzanne B. Riess, The Bancroft Library, Toichi Domoto, Tom Nuccio, University of California Berkeley, USA..

Toichi Domoto

A Japanese-American nurseryman’s life in California: floriculture and family, 1883-1992

With Introductions by Julius Nuccio and Ernest Wertheim
Interviews Conducted by Suzanne B. Riess in 1992

The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley

http://tinyurl.com/4ohuw6
Copy at http://sazanka.org/pages/toichi_domoto

This sasanqua cultivar, ‘Dwarf Shishi’, was originated by Toichi Domoto in 1988:

It is excellent for bonsai.

Also I found a very likely photo pictures of Toichi Domoto (need to check with Tom Nuccio) on http://tinyurl.com/4795g8. I am almost sure this is the same one (born 1902, high school in East Bay):

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‘Nodami Ushiro’ – a Higo-like sasanqua

Published on September 16, 2008 by Yuri Panchul. 1 Comment. Tags: California, Domoto Nursery, Higo, Japan, Jennifer Trehane, Kumamoto, Nodami Ushiro, Nuccio's Nurseries, pink, semi-double, single, Stirling Macoboy, Toichi Domoto, USA..

Camellia sasanqua ‘Nodami Ushiro’. Introduced by Domoto Nursery, California, 1934, but is originally from Japan. Stirling Macoboy believes that the name means “a backward glance” in Japanese, but he is probably incorrect. Since I cannot find this name in Japanese sources and my Japanese wife tells me that Japanese people are not likely to name a flower this way (“mi” meaning “body”), I guess that the original name was different. From browsing the history of Toichi Domoto I got an impression that he did not know Kanji well because he was a second-generation Japanese-American. Because of it, Toichi Domoto probably made a naming mistake when he imported it.

It is difficult to explain what is so special about ‘Nodami Ushiro’. It is a single pink camellia with a lot of single pink competitors – ‘Plantation Pink’, ‘Cleopatra’, ‘Tanya’ and others. However Jennifer Trehane in her camellia book calls ‘Nodami Ushiro’ “a subtle, sophisticated camellia”. Where does this sophistication come from? I have an explanation.
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Camellia grijsii

Published on March 13, 2008 by Yuri Panchul. 3 Comments. Tags: China, chromosome numbers, Clifford Parks, cluster-flowering habit, Collected Species of the genus Camellia, columnar habit, de Grijs, double, Du Yueqiang, 长瓣短柱茶, Fujian, Gao Jiyin, grijsii, Guangxi, Henry Fletcher Hance, Hubei, hybridizing, impressed veins, International Camellia Society, japonica, Kamo Honnami, Katsuhiko Kondo, kissii, Nuccio's Nurseries, oleifera, Paracamellia, Sichuan, single, small leaves, Species, tea oil, white, yuhsienensis, Yume, Zhenzhu Cha..

This month The International Camellia Society put two of my camellia photo pictures to the front page of their website. One is a picture of Camellia japonica ‘Kamo Honnami’ (see their website), and another is a picture of Camellia grijsii, a species related to C. sasanqua:

Camellia grijsii
C. grijsii

Camellia grijsii (长瓣短柱茶 in Chinese) Hance (1879) is a wild species of section Paracamellia. It is related to C. sasanqua, C. oleifera and C. kissii. It was collected in 1861 in Fujian by C.F.M. de Grijs. It is distributed in China (Fujian, Hubei, Sichuan, Guangxi) and used for a high-quality oil production. C. grijsii is closely related to another species – C. yuhsienensis, that is a parent of a popular cultivar ‘Yume’.

I got my two plants of C. grijsii from Nuccio’s Nurseries. The first one (shown above) has single white flowers and the second one is a double-flowered Chinese cultivar called ‘Zhenzhucha’:

Camellia grijsii 'Zhenzhucha'
Camellia grijsii ‘Zhenzhucha’

Camellia grijsii has great hybridizing potential. Two plants in my garden have small leaves with impressed veins and very columnar shape. I believe there are also varieties with larger leaves, but I am specifically interested in small-leaved cultivars.

Another great feature of C. grijsii is its cluster-flowering habit. However in my garden C. grijsii flowers from January to March, so it will be a challenge to cross it with Fall-flowering sasanquas. Probably I will have to store some pollen from sasanquas in refrigerator for a couple of months.

Another problem is chromosome number. According to Kondo and his associates it has a variety of chromosome numbers 2n = 30, 60, 75 and 90 (see the reference in Collected Species of the Genus Camellia, an Illustrated Outline by Gao Jiyin, Clifford R. Parks and Du Yuequiang).
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Chinese names for species

Published on March 13, 2008 by Yuri Panchul. 0 Comments. Tags: brevistyla, China, Collected Species of the genus Camellia, confusa, 狭叶油茶, 琉球短柱茶, 短柱茶, 短柱茶组, 窄叶短柱茶, 粉红短柱茶, 细叶短柱茶, 芳香短柱茶, 茶梅, 落瓣短柱茶, 钝叶短柱茶, 长瓣短柱茶, 陕西短柱茶, 褐枝短柱茶, 高州油茶, 越南油茶, fluviatilis, gauchowensis, grijsii, hiemalis, kissi, lanceoleosa, maliflora, microphylla, miyagii, obtusifolia, odorata, oleifera, Paracamellia, phaeoclada, puniceiflora, sasanqua, shensiensis, Species, tenii, vietnamensis, yuhsienensis, 冬红短柱茶, 大姚短柱茶, 小果短柱茶, 攸县油茶, 樱花短柱茶, 油茶, 油茶组..

Here is Chinese names of Camellia species from sections Oleifera and Paracamellia. Recent genetic research suggest that these sections should be grouped back together to the original Sealy’s section Paracamellia.

Sect. Oleifera H. T. Chang (油茶组)

C. gauchowensis H. T. Chang (高州油茶)
C. oleifera Abel (油茶)
C. vietnamensis T. C. Huang ex Hu (越南油茶)
C. sasanqua Thunb. (茶梅)
C. lanceoleosa H. T. Chang & J. S. Chiu (狭叶油茶)

Sect. Paracamellia Sealy (短柱茶组)

C. fluviatilis Hand.-Mazz. (窄叶短柱茶)
C. grijsii Hance (长瓣短柱茶)
C. yuhsienensis Hu (攸县油茶)
C. odorata L. S. Xie & Z. Y. Zhang (芳香短柱茶)
C. shensiensis H. T. Chang (陕西短柱茶)
C. confusa Craib (小果短柱茶)
C. kissi Wall. (落瓣短柱茶)
C. tenii Sealy (大姚短柱茶)
C. hiemalis Nakai (冬红短柱茶)
C. miyagii (Koidz.) Makino & Nemoto (琉球短柱茶)
C. brevistyla (Hayata) Coh. Stuart (短柱茶)
C. obtusifolia H. T. Chang (钝叶短柱茶)
C. puniceiflora H. T. Chang (粉红短柱茶)
C. microphylla (Merr.) Chien (细叶短柱茶)
C. maliflora Lindl. (樱花短柱茶)
C. phaeoclada H. T. Chang (褐枝短柱茶)

Sources:

Gao J-Y (高继银), Parks CR, Du Y-Q (杜跃强). 2005. Collected species of the genus Camellia an illustrated outline (山茶属植物主要原种彩色图集). Hangzhou: Zhejiang Science and Technology Press.

Lin X-Y (林秀艳), Peng Q-F (彭秋发), Lü H-F (吕洪飞), Du Y-Q (杜跃强), Tang B-Y (汤妣颖). 2008. Leaf anatomy of Camellia sect. Oleifera and sect. Paracamellia (Theaceae) with reference to their taxonomic significance. Journal of Systematics and Evolution (植物分类学报) 46:183–193. http://www.plantsystematics.com

Shen Jin-Bo, Lü H-F (吕洪飞), Peng Q-F (彭秋发), Zheng Ju-Fang, Tian Yu-Mei. 2008. FTIR spectra of Camellia sect. Oleifera, sect. Paracamellia, and sect. Camellia (Theaceae) with reference to their taxonomic significance. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 46 (2): 194–204. http://www.plantsystematics.com

2008 National Camellia Show at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

Published on February 25, 2008 by Yuri Panchul. 6 Comments. Tags: American National Shows, anemone, Chang Hung Ta, China, Chojiguruma, 粉红短柱茶, Hunan, Japan, Kansai, Kennett Square, Longwood Gardens, Paracamellia, Pennsylvania, photography competitions, pink, puniceiflora, Shows and conferences, single, small leaves, Species, USA, Zhejiang, 丁子車..

I got two awards on 2008 National Camellia Show at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. I took part in photography competition.

The first photo picture is of species Camellia puniceiflora from section Paracamellia:

Camellia puniceiflora (粉红短柱茶 in Chinese) Chang 1981. A wild species distributed in China: Zhejiang, Hunan. Small leaves, grows up to 2 m (6 f) high.

The second photo picture is of sasanqua cultivar called Chojiguruma:

Chojiguruma, 丁子車 in Japanese. Means “a wheel of anemone” in Japanese. Introduced in 1789. Originated in Kansai, spread to many places. This anemone form is very rare for C. sasanqua cultivars.

The complete list of all results of the Camellia Photography Show is below:
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Guestbook and Announcements

Published on January 8, 2008 by Yuri Panchul. 12 Comments. Tags: Announcements, Bonsai Baby, Jaune, microphylla, oleifera, Paradise Petite, Yuri Panchul..

Welcome, you can leave a message here. I am looking for the following species and cultivars: Camellia microphylla, Bonsai Baby, Paradise Petite, Camellia oleifera ‘Jaune’. If you want to use any of my photo pictures please let me know.

Yuri Panchul

Species and cultivars gallery

Published on December 28, 2007 by Yuri Panchul. 0 Comments. Tags: books..

1. Introduction

Yuri Panchul Garden

2. Wild form

↑ Camellia sasanqua, selection ‘Shikoku Stars’. Thunberg 1784. Native to southern Japan: southern Shikoku, Kyushu, Ryukyu islands. Thought to be a geographical variant of C. oleifera native to China. Grows up to 26 ft (8 m) Flowers early fall to mid-winter. Chromosome numbers: 2n = 90 (wild forms), 45-120 (cultivars) (Kondo, 1977).

Toichi Domoto

1. Introduction

2. Wild form

3. Big white single

4. White double

5. Single pinks

6. Double pinks

7. Semi-formal pinks

8. Peony pinks

9. Anemone pinks

10. Dark pinks

11. Yuletide and Hiryu

12. Bicolor

13. Egao group

14. Oleifera and Ackerman hybrids

15. Other species and hybrids

16. Low growing and small foliage

17. Foliage

18. Credits

Selected Contents

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Camellia oleifera

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