Stewartia

As far as trees go, there’s not much to dislike about Stewartia pseudocamellia.  Well, there is one tiny complaint but I’ll get to that in a minute.  The tree has fantastic mottled bark, similar to what you might see on the American Sycamore.  It has wonderful fall color, bright oranges and red, and you’ll find that it easily produces baby Stewartias that will show up around your garden given the right conditions. Toward the end of June the tree becomes absolutely loaded with beautiful white, camellia-like flowers.  And, what about that one tiny complaint?  Well, it’s the beautiful white flowers that can become a slight nuisance depending on where the tree is situated. It’s the way they drop off the tree, as whole flowers that scatter over the ground and on top of plants like a bunch of sunny side-up eggs. However, a little raking and cleanup takes care of all this and it seems like a small price to pay for what I think is one of the prettiest trees you can plant on your property.