Source: Camellia Forest (NC)
Size shipped: 6-quart (= #2?) pot (measured 3')
Planted: In ground, September 2020
First flowering: Who cares?
This tree was part of my second-ever order from Camellia Forest (the first being the April Dawn camellia only), and I ordered it from them because, with Rare Find's website still being under renovation and unable to accept orders, I could not get one from anywhere else in the East (with the possible exception of The Tree Center, which I've been trying to avoid).
But this tree, as I received it, doesn't incline me to order non-camellias from them in the future. It's not even the root system that I'm annoyed about this time; while there were countless circling roots, they were still young and flexible for the most part and therefore not difficult to spread apart.
No, my problem with this tree was a much more visible one, which you might even be able to see in the photo: a glaringly obvious double leader. Narrow V-shaped crotch, included bark, everything. And the vast majority of the foliage was above the split, meaning that I don't even know if I can afford to remove one whole half at once (I may need to reduce it gradually over two years instead, just to avoid shocking the tree too badly).
The winter of 2021 kept temperatures out of single digits but still dumped a foot and a half of snow on us all at once. The incense-cedar responded by yellowing significantly; as of the end of March, it appeared to have died completely (if the scratch test can be trusted). I'm not entirely sure what went wrong, as planting in September should have allowed for plenty of time before winter for the tree to get settled in, and there was no shortage of moisture to be had. Should my takeaway from this be that I can't plant plants coming from Southen nurseries in the fall? After all, Sunset does consider zone 37 to be the northern limit for incense-cedar. That said, the wax-myrtles came from even farther south (Georgia) and were planted later (October) and were even more marginal in hardiness, and they survived (albeit dropping the vast majority of their leaves), so...?