I may be misunderstanding your question, but many camellias take different forms, and I've seen the same 'Cinnamon Cindy' plant put out different-looking blooms. Yes, 'CC' is usually peoniform, but that doesn't mean she's always true to form. Many camellias are a bit unstable.

My guess is that both of these plants you mention ARE 'CC', just with different blooming habits. To complicate things, many camellias throw sports, and if I like a particular bloom from a plant (perhaps especially if it's a little different), I might take a cutting from that part of the plant to propagate in hopes that the flowers on the new plant will look like this more unusual type. I might or might not get a plant whose flowers are generally different from the norm, and even if they are unusual for a while, they might still eventually revert to the original plant's norm.

If a camellia's sport seems to be stable (doesn't revert to the usual flower of the parent plant after several seasons of bloom), it may get its own name. I'm thinking of 'Mathotiana' and its fringed sport 'Flowerwood', but also about 'Betty Sheffield' and 'Lady Vansittart' and their many permutations.

I would guess that if the single-form 'CC' that you mention never (or only rarely) has peoniform flowers, and if plants propagated from it are also pretty consistently single-form with the blooms, then it might deserve to be considered a separate cultivar, and registered as such. Camellias can be pretty variable and unstable, so there needs to be some evidence of a persistent and consistent difference from the parent cultivar for the registration of the offspring as a new cultivar to be worthwhile.

Perhaps Dr. Ackerman felt that the single-form variation wasn't different enough to be considered as a different variety, or maybe he didn't know if the variation would eventually revert to the peoniform norm. If he documented the different types, and the mutations turned out to be stable, someone might decide it's worth registering the mutant as a different variety.

Thank you, vmr423, for your thoughtful & probably correct answer to my dilemma. A call today to the botanist at the American Camellia Society headquarters in Fort Valley has likely explained things as best we'll ever know. In 1995 (four years after he sent the cuttings to Kathy here in Oregon) Dr. Ackerman registered Cinnamon Scentsation, described as a sport of CC and fitting the description of what I saw. I will simply say that I have never seen a sport quite as unlike its parent as this is. I am really happy that it did get registered and seems generally available. Among fragrant hybrids, Cinnamon Scentsation is a standout for looks & scent and has proven vigorous and hardy to c. 5 to 10 degrees living here in oregon since 1991. I recommend it to anyone seeking such a variety. Collier Brown

I like Cinnamon Scentsation also, and to my nose (not all that reliable with scents) it has a stronger fragrance than 'Cinnamon Cindy'. I do prefer the peony bloom form, though.

It didn't even occur to me that 'CS' was the plant you'd encountered! According to the Web Camellia Register, 'CS' is a mutation of 'CC', much like 'Flowerwood' was a mutation of 'Mathotiana'... Interesting.