A varied palette
The palette moves from cream and pale pink to stronger pink-red, creating natural variation.
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When everything is grey, it presses play on colour. ▶️🌸
Family: Theaceae · Pot diameter: 15 cm · Height: approximately 50 cm
Camellia japonica ‘Winter Festival’ creates a display worth returning to, with each newly opened flower adding something different. The same crown can carry full double blooms in creamy white, soft pink and deeper pink-red tones. Overlapping petals give each flower depth, while the dark glossy foliage makes the colours stand out. If you love the elegance of camellias but also enjoy an element of surprise, this variety brings the two together in one changing display.
Its dense upright crown develops a rounded fullness, giving a garden corner or prominent container a lasting presence. Against a simple wall or beside finer foliage, the varied flowers become the main feature without needing an elaborate planting scheme around them.
Its strength is the range of colours within one flowering season without losing an elegant overall unity.
The palette moves from cream and pale pink to stronger pink-red, creating natural variation.
Multiple rows of petals add rich volume and hold attention even on smaller blooms.
The dense upright crown remains clean after flowering and works as a permanent structural shrub.
Why you will love it: there is no need to choose one camellia colour—the same crown provides an entire palette.
Place it against a calm evergreen or dark wall where the different flowers read clearly. An east-facing aspect or high filtered light is ideal.
Do not crowd it among many strongly coloured flowering plants. Leave room for the upright crown and lower planting at the base.
The natural mix of cream, pink and cherry needs calm textures in dark green, silver or clear white. Companions should share partial shade, acidic soil and even moisture.
Bright partial shade or morning sun, away from hot afternoon light.
Even moisture without saturation, especially in summer as buds mature.
RHS H5 hardiness. Shelter open flowers from frost and drying winds, and protect a potted rootball during prolonged severe cold.
For ornamental use, not consumption.
Provide bright partial shade with protection from hot afternoon sun. Avoid a position where sudden early sun falls on frozen buds or flowers.
Use acidic, organic and well-drained soil. Choose ericaceous compost in a container.
Maintain even moisture from spring growth through bud maturation. Avoid abrupt cycles of drought and excess.
Ericaceous feed after flowering supports fresh shoots. Do not overfeed at the expense of buds.
Prune only immediately after flowering and only as needed for cleaning or balance.
Double blooms trap water between petals. Shelter from persistent rain and remove fallen flowers for a cleaner display.
In the first year, energy is shared between roots and fresh shoots, so flowering may be limited.
Summer moisture and mature new growth determine how many buds open in the next season.
The combination of shades can vary between flowers, with cream, pale pink and deeper pink-red in the cultivar’s palette.
Low branching fills an upright rounded crown, with double flowers in cream and varying pink tones.
The balance of colours varies from flower to flower. Once flowering finishes, the rounded crown retains its foliage.
What to expect after planting: Branching gradually becomes denser. In the ground, allow about 1.5–2.5 m in height and spread over 10–20 years; a pot usually limits growth.
Its story begins in Upland, California, at Kramer Brothers Nursery. The 1970 catalogue presented it as Camellia japonica ‘Festival’: a vigorous camellia with compact upright growth and full double flowers in blush pink. The orderly overlapping petals already defined its character.
In its later commercial life it also became known as ‘Winter Festival’, the name used here. The RHS links both names to the same cultivar and describes its palette from creamy white to pink-red. The camellia from that Californian catalogue continues its journey into gardens with a winter name that suits its display.
‘Festival’, synonymous with ‘Winter Festival’, is recorded as formal double: many overlapping petal rows cover the centre without exposed stamens. This classification describes flower architecture independently of colour; it does not mean two separate flowering periods during the year.
Six practical answers about position, watering and long-term growth.
A variable palette is characteristic of ‘Winter Festival’ and may include cream, pale pink and deeper pink-red.
The main season runs from about February to April, shifting with local climate.
Yes. Acidic, humus-rich and free-draining soil is fundamental for healthy foliage.
Yes, in a pot with drainage holes, ericaceous compost and even moisture. Increase pot size gradually as the roots develop.
Persistent moisture and heavy rain can mark petals, while frost can damage open flowers.
As flowering ends, before the fresh shoots that carry future buds mature.
Every order is prepared with care so your plant arrives upright, secure and safe.
Individual protection
Plants in pots with a capacity of 3 litres or more are placed in individual boxes that hold the pot securely and reduce the risk of tipping over.
Sturdy packaging
We use reinforced cardboard designed to protect against impacts and vibration during transport.