Gardening: My new best friend

My Camellia sasanqua has flowered. Known as the "Flower of the Autumn Sun", Sasanqua, or Sazanka as the Japanese call it, actually better translates as "tea-plum blossom" or "mountain-tea flower" - names almost as gorgeous as the bloom. It is an evergreen wild species in the coastal and mountain highlands of central and southern Japan, and is most often found on the islands of Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa.

In my garden it is found, far less romantically, growing up the side of the garden shed and has just started to provide exactly the cover-up I intended. But I could have asked it to do almost anything. Sasanqua is often a dense and rapid grower and it's so amenable you can use it as a thick shrub, a willowy specimen tree or a spectacular evergreen hedge. If allowed to develop naturally, most varieties soon become a dense and rounded shrub. Some varieties will eventually become small, semi-weeping trees and you can also train it to climb over a pergola, up a trellis or cover a wall. A very good choice, then, for someone who can't make up their mind what they want.