Camellia japonica Baby Sis Pink

Camellia japonica ‘Baby Sis Pink’ is a Japanese camellia with captivating, regular, pink anemone-form flowers, prettily set against its glossy, dark green foliage. Compact yet elegant, it finds a place in small gardens or in pots on a shaded terrace. Its late winter flowering brings colour when few shrubs are in bloom. Hardy down to -14°C, this camellia prefers partial shade, acidic and light soils, and humid climates.

This evergreen bush belongs to the Theaceae family; the species is Camellia japonica, still cited in older literature as Thea japonica. It is native to the acidic, humid undergrowth of Japan, Korea, and eastern China, where it grows sheltered by large trees, in soils rich in litter layer and well-drained.
'Baby Sis Pink’ is a seedling with soft pink flowers from the miniature cultivar ‘Baby Sis’, selected in the United States by Hugh Shackelford and disseminated in the 1960s; it retains the compact stature and anemone-form flowering of its parent, but offers a uniformly pink colour. The bush has a compact, upright habit and slow to moderate growth. In the ground, it commonly reaches 1 to 1.20 m in height with a spread of about 1m at 10 years old. It can eventually reach 1.50m/2m under good conditions; in a pot, its stature remains more modest, around 0.80–1.20 m. The evergreen foliage is leathery and glossy: the alternate leaves are elliptical, 5 to 10 cm long, with a finely toothed margin. Their colour is dark green on top, lighter underneath. The root system is rather shallow; the plant appreciates acidic to slightly acidic soils (pH 5 to 6.5), rich in humus, moist but well-drained, non-calcareous. It forms a short trunk branching from the base.
Flowering occurs from February to April; by the sea, sheltered from the wind, it can begin as early as January, while in colder regions, it is often delayed to March to May. The flowers are borne on the previous year's wood, measure 6.5 to 7.5 cm in diameter and adopt the anemone form: two external rows of petals frame a tight centre of petaloids mixed with stamens. The corolla colour is a soft, uniform pink. 
"Miniatures" like ‘Baby Sis’ were sought after from the mid-20th century for cut flowers and winter displays, as their compact corollas hold up well in a vase and even open in a cool interior.