Larry Smith and the Riverside Gardens team talk all things pots, plants and pruning in their weekly gardening column.
I took a quick walk around the garden centre earlier this week to work out what to feature in this week’s column, and the real obvious choice was Camellia sasanqua, whose first flowers for the season are just opening.
The plants in the nursery and the ones that I have seen around town are absolutely covered in buds, so with the right weather, they should be making a spectacular display over the next month or so.
Camellia sasanqua is the smaller leafed camellia plant that, in general, can take more sun than other varieties of Camellia and start flowering way before the rest of them. Their flowers are usually smaller and less complex than Camellia Japonica, Camellia x Williamsii and Camellia reticulata. But for what they lack here, they surely make up for it in the sheer quantity of flowers they produce.
With their floral display starting around now, it is like softening the blow of reality that the lovely days of late summer and early autumn are passing by, and we are headed towards the cold days of winter.
As young plants, most Camellia sasanqua are usually open, sparse and rather lanky in habit with long, whippy new growth and few branches. As they mature, they fill in to form a dense leafy shrub with lustrous green leaves.
Like most Camellias, the Camellia sasanqua has a slow-to-moderate growth rate and is not prone to many insect or fungal problems. Camellias grow best in slightly acidic soil (pH 5.5 to 6.5) that is moist but well-drained and has a high content of organic matter.
Camellia sasanqua lends itself well to hedging, topiary and espaliering, making them a great choice for a beautiful flowering feature in the garden, and it is often only because of the immature habit that they are overlooked.
One of the earlier flowering varieties of Camellia is Camellia hiemalis ‘Hiryu’, which is one of the hardiest varieties that I know. It is a cross between Camellia sasanqua and Camellia Japonica but has most of the characteristics of a sasanqua. Camellia ‘Hiryu’ can grow to about three meters high and will flower in flushes of deep rose-pink flowers from now until well into winter. It thrives in hot, full sun to semi-shade.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Setsugekka’ is an old Japanese cultivar with large semi-double white flowers and wavy petals that sit attractively against the glossy green foliage. Setsugekka is suitable for planting in full sun or a lightly shaded position. It is a very popular, well-proven variety for hedging and topiary, and if hedging is desired, it should be planted between 1-1.5m apart.
Also starting to flower now is the Camellia hybrid ‘Sweet Jane,’ a Victorian-bred hybrid that probably has the longest flowering of the Camellias. Starting now, it is not unusual for it to still be flowering within five or six months. The dark pink buds open to a medium-sized white flower blushed with soft pastel pink outer petals. ‘Sweet Jane’ prefers filtered sun, so a semi-shaded or morning sun position is best suited.
Becoming popular over the past few years has been some of the shorter growing varieties like paradise ‘petite pink,’ ‘paradise petite white,’ and paradise ‘little Lianne.’ These all grow to around 1.5-2m high and 1m wide, making a nice compact flowering shrub.
Other taller varieties, such as ‘Jennifer Sussan,’ ‘paradise pearl,’ ‘plantation pink,’ ‘pure silk,’ ‘Yuletide,’ ‘Beatrice Emily’ and ‘star above star,’ are all looking good in the garden centre right now. The range will only continue to grow over the next few weeks.
Keep an eye out around town, and you will see these very hardy, versatile plants come into their prime over the next month or so. They are well worth considering for your garden.