Editor’s Note: The late garden designer and author Ryan Gainey wrote a regular column for Flower magazine for many years, sharing his remarkable garden knowledge and stories. Here, we preserve his words from 2009, but have added a few new favorite camellia photos.
![FlowerMagazineMarchApril2009-0003-01_cropped a basket arrangement of camellia varieties ranging from pale to dark pink, with solid and variegated petals](https://flowermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/FlowerMagazineMarchApril2009-0003-01_cropped.jpg)
A statue of “Winter” holding ‘Man Size’ camellia in a sterling silver lapel pin. The basket has six camellia varieties: ‘Black Magic,’ ‘Scentsation,’ ‘Herme,’ ‘Dr. Tinsley,’ ‘Bernice Boddy,’ and ‘Ville de Nantes.’ - author Ryan Gainey
The collection that shines most in winter is that of my camellias. Camellias are a great passion for they connect me to my three garden muses—Mrs. Failes, Mrs. Flowers, and Mrs. Floyd—who taught me to love gardening at home in Hartsville, South Carolina, and they bear witness to my relationship with Atlanta as a garden designer and 30-year resident.
![camellias_RebeccaGardner camellias in a pair of small vases an a pink and white striped tablecloth](https://flowermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/camellias_RebeccaGardner.jpg)
Camellia varieties dance together in petite monogrammed glass vases in a scene styled by Rebecca Gardner of Houses & Parties. Photo by Chia Chong from LIVING FLORAL by Margot Shaw (Rizzoli, 2019).
When I started my first shop on Peachtree Circle in Atlanta, retired attorney Hugh Shackelford, a man with a great passion for porcelain and camellias, used to bring me cardboard boxes lined with Spanish moss and filled with camellias for me to display in the shop. Now, in my garden with its 75-plus camellia plants, I have one raised by Mr. Shackelford.
![MarshallWatsonIMG_2754 camellia blooms floating in a vintage blue dish](https://flowermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/MarshallWatsonIMG_2754.jpg)
How do interior designers shelter in place? Marshall Watson filled his home with dishes of floating camellia blooms.
![camellia camellia varieties](https://flowermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/camellia.jpg)
While the Camellia sinensis flower may not be as noteworthy as other camellias, the plant itself is very significant to tea-drinkers the world over. (Photo Miltos Gikas via Flickr)
Blooming from December to April, camellias make wonderful evergreen shrubs. They are perfect understory plants, which are always needed in our shaded Atlanta gardens. I prefer to see them grown as understory shrubs, rather than stuck out in full sun. They’ll survive drought in rare form—as green and glossy as they can be—requiring little care with perhaps one or two annual feedings and watering in the worst of dry weather.
![FlowerMagazineMarchApril2009-0074-03 camellia varieties](https://flowermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/FlowerMagazineMarchApril2009-0074-03-e1490566010801.jpg)
A basket of Camellia japonica ‘Pink Perfection’ look strikingly similar to the porcelain camellia from Boehme/Beame nestled amongst them.
![FlowerMagazineMarchApril2009-0101-04_cropped ‘Bernice Boddy’ camellia shrub](https://flowermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/FlowerMagazineMarchApril2009-0101-04_cropped.jpg)
‘Bernice Boddy’ proliferates in Ryan Gainey’s garden.
Where do I find my camellias? I order lots of camellia varieties from Nuccio’s Nurseries in Altadena, California. That’s where I got my ‘Betty Foy Sanders’, which has won numerous blue ribbons at the Southeastern Flower Show.
If you want to see thousands of camellia varieties in bloom, travel down to Byron, Georgia, to County Line Wholesale Nursery. They are 10 minutes away from Fort Valley and the home of The American Camellia Society’s Massee Lane Gardens.
An insatiable collector, I am always looking out for another to add to my growing collection. Perhaps I’ll see you along the path.
![yuletide camellia Yuletide camellia flowers](https://flowermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/yuletide-camellia-.jpg)