You are bidding on about 20 FRANKLIN TREE SEEDS - Franklinia alatamaha .

This is a deciduous large shrub or small tree growing to 33 ft tall, but commonly 15–25 ft. It is prized for its fragrant white flowers, similar to Camellia blossoms; the smell may remind some of honeysuckle. It has cup-shaped, 5-petaled, sweetly-fragrant, white flowers (to 3” diameter) bloom in late summer to early fall. Each flower sports a boss of egg-yolk yellow center stamens .

The fruit develops slowly. The seed capsules require 12–14 months to mature. When ripe the 5-valved spherical capsules split above and below in a unique manner .

Narrow, oblong-obovate, glossy dark green leaves (to 5” long) turn quality shades of orange, red and purple in autumn.

It prefers sandy, high-acid soil, and does not tolerate compacted clay soil, excessive moisture, or any disturbance to its roots. The Franklin tree has no known pests, but it is subject to a root-rot disease and does not endure drought well.

Zone: 5 to 8

Height: 10.00 to 20.00 feet

Spread: 6.00 to 15.00 feet

Bloom Time: July to August

Franklinia alatamaha sounds exotic, and it truly deserves to be. Known as the Franklin tree, the lost camellia, or the lost Gordonia, it has perhaps the most romantic, mysterious past of any native American plant species. John Bartram and his son William discovered a modest grove of this unusually beautiful small tree in Georgia in 1765. By 1803, and perhaps a decade earlier, it had disappeared completely from the wild. Franklinia only survived due to the Bartrams’ collecting plants and seeds as avid horticulturists and propagating them in their Philadelphia garden the last quarter of the 18th century. All cultivated plants today descend from one or more of their collected specimens.