{"id":3438,"date":"2021-07-06T06:55:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T14:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3438"},"modified":"2021-07-06T06:56:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T14:56:34","slug":"stewartia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/stewartia\/","title":{"rendered":"Stewartia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stewartia--Japanese--2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I vowed that if I had an arboretum, I would include Japanese stewartia, for its beautiful, camellia-like flowers.\u00a0 As is often the case, a stewartia popped up in front of me just a few days later.\u00a0 Despite the recent infernal temperatures, it was not a heat-induced mirage.<\/p>\n

I was on a walk through a local vest-pocket botanical garden and the sight of the medium-size tree transformed my somewhat abstract admiration into urgent reality.\u00a0 If the temperature had been under ninety and my holding area was not already full of plants, I would have made tracks to my wonderful local nursery for a baby stewartia.<\/p>\n

The tree that inspired this flight of fancy was Japanese stewartia or Stewartia pseudocamellia.\u00a0 It was at its best, flaunting a large number of white blooms plus multi-colored exfoliating bark.\u00a0 This bark, which peels gradually from the tree, looks a little like camouflage, but a lot more interesting, with patches of gray, sepia, tawny orange-brown and taupe covering the trunk.\u00a0 The specimen in the botanical garden was relatively young, possibly 15 to 20 feet tall.\u00a0 When it grows up, it may reach about 40 feet.<\/p>\n

In spring, when everything under the sun is blooming, stewartia flowers would be lovely.\u00a0 In late June or early July, when the earth is often parched, the kousa dogwoods have finished and the roses-of-Sharon are still only thinking about flowering, stewartia blossoms are more than lovely, they are refreshing.<\/p>\n

Each flower features five to eight white petals surrounding a center of golden stamens.\u00a0 While only minimally fragrant, they are maximally elegant and borne abundantly on the trees.\u00a0 The glossy green leaves that frame those blooms are slightly toothed and alternate on the stems.\u00a0 In the fall the leaves turn brilliant shades of yellow, red and near-purple, before falling from the trees.\u00a0 The combination of alluring bark, gorgeous summer flowers and brilliant fall leaves gives Japanese stewartia four seasons of interest.<\/p>\n

Like the camellia, which has similar flowers and leaves, stewartia is a member of the Theaceae or tea family.\u00a0 Its relatives include the all-American Franklinia tree or Franklinia alatamaha, discovered in Colonial America and now extinct in the wild, and the Gordonia, which, depending on species, is native to both the southeastern United States and Asia.<\/p>\n

For such a beautiful tree, relatively little is written about the history of stewartia.\u00a0 One or more species must have arrived in Europe from either Asia or southeastern North America sometime before 1753, when the great Swedish taxonomist Linnaeus named the genus in honor of John Stuart, third Earl of Bute.\u00a0 The Earl was an 18h<\/sup> century Scottish nobleman\/ botanist, who also served as Prime Minister of England and confidant of King George III.\u00a0 Vilified while Prime Minister, Bute was glorified in horticulture, having been instrumental in the development of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.\u00a0 The original \u201cStuart\u201d of the Earl\u2019s family name has long since been anglicized to \u201cStewart\u201d in the generic plant name.<\/p>\n

Given his bitter experience in politics, it is highly likely that the Earl would rather be remembered for his service to the natural world.<\/p>\n

Japanese stewartia has an American cousin, Stewartia ovata or mountain stewartia, which is a little smaller and can be grown as a tree or a multi-stemmed shrub.\u00a0 It is just a bit less showy than its Japanese relative, but still has the camellia-like flowers,\u00a0 The leaves also flame in the fall, but its gray-brown bark does not exfoliate like that of the Japanese species.\u00a0 Still, for smaller gardens, mountain stewartia is an excellent choice.<\/p>\n

Another American relative, silky stewartia or Stewartia malacodendron, is similar to mountain stewartia in size and configuration.\u00a0 Silky stewartia\u2019s claim to fame is that its white flower petals surround a center of blue purple stamens and filaments, a dramatic variation on the golden centers of the Japanese stewartia.<\/p>\n

Japanese stewartia and its American cousins make excellent specimen trees and also look lovely in part shade, anchoring woodland gardens.\u00a0 If you rush out to buy one in mid-summer, make sure to water thoroughly when you plant and regularly thereafter to get the tree established.\u00a0 Investing in an \u201calligator bag\u201d that you fill with water and attach to the base of the tree is not a bad idea.\u00a0 It releases moisture slowly, allowing it to penetrate to thirsty roots.<\/p>\n

Good local nurseries often carry stewartia, but if you can\u2019t find one in your area, try ForestFarm, 14643 Watergap Rd, Williams, OR 97544; (541) 846-7269; www.forestfarm.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Print catalog available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, I vowed that if I had an arboretum, I would include Japanese stewartia, for its beautiful, camellia-like flowers.\u00a0 As is often the case, a stewartia popped up in front of me just a few days later.\u00a0 Despite the recent infernal temperatures, it was not a heat-induced mirage. I was on a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[2539,987,688,2190,985,2541,2543,2542,986,2540],"class_list":["post-3438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-camellia-family","tag-exfoliating-bark","tag-flowering-trees","tag-four-season-interest","tag-japanese-stewartia","tag-mountain-stewartia","tag-specimen-trees","tag-stewartia-ovata","tag-stewartia-pseudocamellia","tag-theaceae-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3440,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions\/3440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}