Best Companion Plants for Camellias

Among the most popular are Acer or Japanese Maples, with their canopy of lush green leaves in spring and summer and exquisite fall foliage. Some Maple varieties also offer a particularly attractive growth habit and interesting coral bark, which make them standouts in the winter landscape.

Prized worldwide for their showy, fragrant flowers and attractive forms, Magnolias can be deciduous or evergreen trees or shrubs, all adding breathtaking beauty to the spring or summer garden when in full bloom. Some are extremely cold-hardy (Star Magnolia), while others prefer more temperate climates (Southern Magnolia). Some Magnolia cultivars are perfect for small gardens, while others can form tall trees growing as high as 100 ft. (30 m).

Popular companion plants for Camellias, Rhododendrons, and Azaleas are shrubs for all seasons. In spring, their spectacular and showy flowers produce such an incredible display that they are among the most popular garden shrubs. Throughout summer and fall, their handsome foliage adds a pleasing, deep green color to the garden. Some deciduous Azaleas add bright fall color before their leaves drop. All evergreen Rhododendrons and Azaleas stand out in winter with their large leathery leaves. 

Hydrangeas are also irresistible shrubs with showy billowy blooms in clear blues, vibrant pinks, frosty whites, or lavender throughout summer and into fall. Easy to grow and vigorous, Hydrangeas are long-lived shrubs that come in various shapes (lacecap, oakleaf, or mophead), enjoy almost any soil, and tolerate wind and salt (the perfect choice for coastal gardens).

Beloved for its extraordinarily fragrant winter blooms, Lonicera fragrantissima or Sweetest Honeysuckle is a bushy deciduous shrub with a profusion of highly fragrant, short-tubed, creamy-white flowers lined up along each stem in late winter to early spring. The flowers give way to small, red berries, which mature in late spring to early summer. This multi-stemmed flowering shrub features a spreading habit and sports smooth, oval, dark green leaves, which generally remain most of the winter unless the weather gets unusually cold. The rough-textured, pale tan or gray bark on old stems becomes prominent in winter for additional appeal.

Spring flowering perennials include Dicentra spectabilis (Bleeding Heart), Myosotis (Forget-me-not), Phlox divaricata (Woodland Phlox), or pulmonaria.

Immensely popular, Astilbes are fabulous plants for shady, moist conditions. Admired for their graceful, colorful flower plumes rising elegantly above mounds of fern-like foliage, which remains attractive all season long, they light up your shade garden for weeks and add a dazzling splash of color to the landscape.

Select Sedums, Aster, Japanese Anemones, or Aconitum (Monkshood) to create a powerful fall statement.

Ferns are a group with a great variety of heights, textures, and colors whose arching, graceful fronds create pretty combinations with Camellias.

Foliage plants such as Heuchera (Coral Bells), Hostas with their smooth leaves, Carex (Sedges), and ornamental grasses with bright golden foliage such as Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ (Hakone Grass), are also terrific and will carry the display over the year.

Tulips and Narcissi (Daffodil) will also contribute to the beauty of your spring garden.

Some of these flowering bulbs are early-season bloomers (e.g: Single and Double Early Tulips), others are mid-season bloomers (e.g: Triumph and Darwin Hybrid tulips) or late-season bloomers (Single and double Late Tulips, Fringed Tulips, Parrot Tulips, Viridiflora Tulips). If you love Tulips or Daffodils and want to have a great spring garden that blooms from the early season through the late season, select bulbs that bloom across all three spring seasons.