Camellia 'Winton'

This shrub is a delight in mid-winter, skirting the path parallel to the main path leading up to the fountain, in the Award of Garden Merit Border (Area S on the downloadable map). Two metres high with a lax, spreading habit, the branchlets are covered in rosy buds which develop into delicate single blooms of a soft pale pink. These continue for many weeks with the spent flowers sprinkled around on the ground. This camellia is a hybrid between C. cuspidata, introduced from W. China by EH Wilson in 1900, and C. saluenensis introduced in 1918 by George Forrest. It was produced at Hillier's Nursery around 1930. Forrest was sponsored by JC Williams of Caerhays Castle in Cornwall and he created another hybrid between these parents with the mother plant of the cross the other way round. This was the pure white C. 'Cornish Snow', sometimes confused with C. 'Winton'.