Might be Camellia hybrid "Winter's Fire". If the leaves are nearly as large as a japonica, then that would be like Winter's Fire.

doesn't look quite right for 'shishi gashira' except for the color to me but i suppose cultivars can be somewhat variable by site. some of our members' flowers of the same cultivar presented at our annual camellia club show can vary even more noticeably. for your specimen, in particular, the size and arrangement of the stamens appear too long and i see no leaf serrations. pics of my plant of 'shishi' seen below. flowers are large compared to leaves although the flowers are only approx. 2" wide.

still, should be a c. sasanqua; maybe tom's suggestion.

Winter's Fire is my guess. Wrong time of year for sasanquas in zone 7a.

Thanks for the info.

Not at all the wrong time of year!! Sasanquas can bloom anywhere from early November to late February, depending on the selection and many varieties are just now coming into bloom locally. In fact, a Shishi Gashira was in bloom at my local nursery when I visited yesterday and is the spitting image of the OP's plant.

IME, the further north one is located, the later these camellias come into bloom.

If it's "Winter's Fire", that is one of the cold hardy hybrids developed by Dr. William Ackerman between 'Frost Prince' X C. vernalis 'Takarazuka', cold hardy to -5F. (Source: Growing Camellias in Cold Climates: William L. Ackerman).

Shishi has small, very dark green leaves that have pronounced, raised veins. The height is short but grows more upright than the spreading habit that op’s picture shows. Flowers also have more petals. I concur that Shishi can still be in bloom at this time of the year, as long as there are still buds on the plant. However, in op’s picture, there are still many yet to open buds. In late January, Shishi probably shouldn’t have this many left.

Yes, for starters plant asked about does not have Camellia sasanqua foliage.

To me, what says C. x 'Winter's Fire' are the nearly single-form blooms and the very floppy petal substance, in combination with the spreading form. Ackerman hybrids are readily available in the Northeast US.

That, and most sasanquas have frozen their buds off up here, unless in a very protected location and urban heat island. I have several pure sasanquas -- all frozen. But Winter's Fire is blooming.

Yeah, My "shi shi" has leaves a bit different than the posters foliage.