I have had some good luck with camellias herein brooklyn. I have a pink perfection growin out of control in front of a south facing wall and a mathotiana on a north facing wall. I also have a snow camellia whose name I forget. All are doing well. All my plants are from nuccios nursery in LA (they mail order). Plant them high in March . Mulch them with something chunky keeping it awat from the stem, leaving it on all through the next winter. After that they are easy. Do not over water them once they are established. they will survive drought well. In my neighborhood in brooklyn there are many large specimens including atree like one about 15 feet high a few blocks away from me. It must be very old. Amending the soil with lots of peat is good , making a nice raised bed. Good Luck!

The cold-hardy camellias should grow fine in Long Island. I have had no real problems with them the past 2 winters which as you know have been quite cold.

I have Spring Promise, April Dawn, Kumasaka, and April Remembered which I all recommend. I also have Snow Flurry which is also good. I prefer the foliage of the japonicas but that is a personal preference.

My recommendation for you would be to buy from Roslyn nursery in Dix Hills, Long Island. They are an excellent nursery and do mail order but also have a retail pick up nursery. They should be very helpful with recommendations. I bought mine from Fairweather Gardens which is also an excellent nursery.

My sister bought a house a couple years ago that had a camellia in the backyard. She is in Zone 7 Delaware County, PA. It looked like this last month after it was almost done blooming:

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Closer pic of blooms:

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Here's a closeup of the blooms last year in April:

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When she was first looking at the house, we had no idea what the heck it was. We just have never seen anything like it here in our area. LOL

It is a spring-bloomer (April) and is probably one of the original "Ice" hybrids that were developed in the 1950s and has probably been in the ground since that time - it is at least 40 years old as far as the neighbors who were original home owners (as was the seller, although he had died and his grandson sold the house), have indicated. The leaves tend to get some winter tip burn but this doesn't stop the kajillions of buds from forming and blooming with huge, fully double flowers. When the flowers are done, you're left with a sea of pink at the base.

As a point of reference, the fence is 6ft tall, so you can see how tall this thing is. LOL

Thank you all for all the advice. I feel much more confident after reading your posts. Is the west or north side of the house a better choice than east or south? The south side of the house in summer gets very hot but offers wind protection. I have a open planting space on all four sides. Jimmyonyx

Consider where your winter winds will be coming from... Ie., either from wet Nor'easters/blizzards out of the NE, or general icy cold dry stuff out of the NW. And it is those later winter winds that can dessicate the plant and cause winter burn - especially once the days start getting longer in February.

That Camellia in my pic above is planted near the NW corner of the yard so it faces south and east and was apparently planted not far from that neighbor's garage (the fence is new by the way). Originally, there were 2 massive holly trees along the length of the western part of the yard and that conifer in the corner had its branches much lower - ie., the shrub was sortof protected until it reached its full hardiness.

So I think placing it on the N side might be best.

Definitely plant on the North or Eastern side of the yard. They do prefer shade with some morning sun. I would also recommend Hicks Nursery in Westbury for the new cold hardy camellias.The tags should say cold hardy. They have both fall blooming ones in the fall and spring blooming ones in the spring available.

I would like to plant camelia(s)on the west side of my house, close to the house where the sun does to hit til about 2p this time of year. My 'soil' is very rocky with a little decent dirt between the rocks for about 6 inches then 'good' Virginia clay. I have azealas doing well on this side of the house so I'm not too concerned about ph. What are my chances?

Consider adding some soil to raise the bed area. Till the rocky portion and then mound about 6" of some new soil (mixed with some peat to increase the acidity of the new) on top of the tilled rocky soil. Perhaps re-till to mix the rocky portion in and plant the camellia high. Finish up with some mulch around the root zone away from the trunk.