Camellia sasanqua 'Green 02-003' 

Camellia sasanqua 'Green 02-003' on high water in July 2021 at SCREC. 

Summary

South Coast Research & Extension Center (South Coast REC/SCREC) is located in Irvine California, this site has a sandy loam soil and plants are irrigated with reclaimed water. UC Davis is located in Davis, California, this site has a silty clay loam soil and plants are irrigated with potable water. More information about the field sites is located in the Nuts & Bolts section.

Ruby is a Camellia sasanqua cultivar in the October Magic series with glossy, forest green leaves and velvety, deep red flowers occurring in late fall. This cultivar did not perform well on deficit irrigation with reclaimed water at South Coast REC, resulting in high levels of mortality by mid-July. We would not recommend this cultivar, or other camellias for irrigation with reclaimed water in that region.

Ruby performed much better at UC Davis, where the main issues were lack of uniformity and sparse foliage on all treatments, and late season mortality for several plants on the lowest treatment. While foliage scores started out fairly high, yellowing leaves and leaf drop were observed beginning in July. This coincided with the observation of disease-like symptoms on the leaves such as spotting and dieback. While the standard deficit period for the trial is April to October, staff were able to continue collecting data in November and December to assess whether irrigation treatment affected fall flowering scores. While there were no statistical differences among treatments regarding floral display scores, plants on all treatments pushed out new foliage during these months resulting in late-season increases in foliage, vigor, and overall appearance scores. Based on our observations, installing larger sized plants of this cultivar may overcome the lack of uniformity we observed in our #1-sized plants, and if possible, siting where they will receive morning sun and afternoon shade rather than the constant bright shade occurring in our shade structure. Due the mortality observed on the lowest treatment, we would recommend irrigating Ruby on moderate/medium irrigation in WUCOLS zone 2.

Basic Info

Submitted by:	Sunset Western Plant Collection
Site(s):	UC Davis & SCREC
Trial Exposure:	50% Shade
Year evaluated:	2021
Height and Width after 2 yrs:	1.3' x 1.5' -UC Davis NR - SCREC
Reported Height & Width at maturity:	3-4’ x 4-5'
WUCOLS plant type:	S
Water Needs & WUCOLS Region:	Moderate - Region 2
Mean Overall  Appearance rating: (1-5 Scale, 5 is highest)	3 - UC Davis
Flowering Months:	N/A

Growth and Quality Data

Click Here for Complete Data Set

Flowers of October Magic Ruby in December 2020 at UC Davis.