Source: Camellia Forest (NC)
Size shipped: #2 pot (measured 2'+)
Planted: In ground, April 2020
First flowering: At the nursery
(This plant stayed behind when I moved in 2021; therefore, the following text will receive no further updates.)
First impressions: This certainly looks like the vigorous grower it's touted as, just from how big the leaves are compared to the October Magic Ruby Camellia (sasanqua). It had clearly been headed back at the nursery -- what presumably had formerly been the central leader was cut at a diameter of about 1/4" -- and I don't know whether this was for aesthetics or just to make sure it could all fit into the shipping box.
It was, however, a pleasant surprise to be presented with a plant in a #2 nursery pot after the website had said "3-4 quart pot" (which had led me to expect a #1). Loosening the root ball wasn't as painless as with the Ruby, but it wasn't a huge ordeal either. Also, the soil on the Dawn's side of the foundation bed seemed to be more clumpy than where the Ruby was planted, but it wasn't hard to break apart. I also threw in some soil that had been top of the landscape fabric, which had a distinctly different texture; my best guess is that it all used to be mulch (which is what one usually puts on top of landscape fabric) and it had completely decomposed over many years.
But not long after I got it in the ground, I started noticing black patches on the newly emerging leaves. I'm guessing this was cold damage due to the shoots already growing before it was shipped (because it was grown in North Carolina) and not expecting the slight freeze we got; I interpret this to mean that, in most years here in New Jersey, it won't start pushing new growth until May. Time will tell on that one.
The presumed cold damage didn't seem to have lasting ill effects, because the camellia did finish a normal growth flush, of about four new leaves per shoot; but it then appeared to just stop growing completely for a few weeks heading into the summer solstice, with no signs that the terminal buds were still active. The camellia then just sat there not doing much until late July, when the buds for what I assumed to be next year's flowers became prominent, but still no new growth.
If I'd known sooner that the 'April Tryst' camellia from the same breeders is reported to be fragrant (by at least Wilson Bros. and Monrovia, even if not by Camellia Forest themselves) while remaining just as cold hardy, I might have gotten that instead despite April Dawn's nicer-looking flowers.
It appears from the buds that the camellia will flower at terminals only, not at leaf axils. So between that and the fact that this bush is currently too open for its job as a foundation plant, it looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of heading cuts after the spring 2021 bloom...
The winter of 2020-2021 made me wonder if it was just a particularly desperate one for the local deer population, as the evergreen azalea that I inherited with the house was the barest I can ever remember seeing it. Originally the camellia held up well, I assume because its larger leaf size was a deterrent; however, by early March, about half the leaves that weren't still buried under snow were gone -- even some of the flower buds had been eaten off.
But the flower buds that survived did bloom on schedule, in April as the name indicated. One problem was that most of the remaining flower buds were pointed down and/or hidden by the leaves, and thus not easily visible; but I don't anticipate that being the case in most years when the deer aren't quite so numerous and/or desperate.