I have several varieties of Camellias growing in my Devon garden. New varieties of Camellias or indeed any other plants are created by careful hybridisation, ocasionally plants will mutate spontaneously producing a different type or colour on the same plant. this is known as throwing a 'sport' or a chimera. If this new growth is propagated separately it will be possible to produce a new plant bearing the characteristics of the new sport. My Camellia 'Shiro Wabisuke', is white (Wabisuke is Japanese for white and a square-shaped sword), produced two sports this year one smaller white bloom with paler centre and more strikingly a red bloom. It is not that unusual for Camellias to produce sports or for roses to do this. Another plant that quite readily produces sports is the Pelargonium. Zonal pelargoniums will sometimes throw out completely white stems. These, however, cannot be propagated as they are deficient in chlorophyll caused by the supression white pigments.