Camellias for an easy-going tree

Camellia Jubilation

Camellias are a well-known plant that over the last few years is experiencing an increase in popularity.
They are being recognised as a versatile plant with a number of attractive features - they keep a naturally tidy structural form, they are a generally low maintenance plant with little in the way of pest and disease, they are long lived, they respond well to both trimming or left to their own devices and they make good container plants as well as being grown in the garden. Many varieties flower during the winter months when there is little other colour in the garden.
Camellias prefer partial shade and acidic, well-composted soil. Camellias are one of the most highly prized of all evergreen shrubs, having rich green glossy foliage and great beauty and diversity of flower from April to November each year.
The flowers may be single, double or semi double and pink, red, sometimes white or mixtures of all three. There are a few creamy-yellow and also bluish-purple coloured flowering varieties.
In Whanganui camellias generally grow very well, with some protection from prevailing winds and with some shade offering protection from the hottest of the summer sun. Camellias grow best in fertile soil conditions, preferring soil that is well drained but moisture retentive, and slightly acidic. The best soils range from good loam to sand well enriched with peat (good quality organic compost can be used too but beware many bagged composts have an alkaline pH so are not suitable). Clay soils, though they are moisture retentive, offer the least friendly conditions for camellia roots because the particles are so small and tightly packed that drainage is extremely slow and roots can remain saturated and suffocate from a lack of soil air causing death of the plant. This especially occurs on level clay sites. Clay soils on a slope or hillside can be more accommodating because drainage is downslope and the roots are less likely to be in prolonged saturation.
You can improve the drainage of clay and aeration of clay soils by adding copious amounts of organic matter and gypsum, a neutral pH form of lime that flocculates fine clay soil particles into a more crumbly structure. The problem often remains that the clay soil around the improved soil will prevent the water from draining away quickly enough and can create a 'bathtub' effect.
Basic Planting Guidelines Camellia failure can sometimes be traced to too deep planting than to any other single cause. The roots grow out rather than down and you do not need to dig a deep planting hole but rather a broad one.
Sand and Loam Soils: the planting hole should be a little more than double the depth of the root ball and approximately three times as wide. To the soil that you remove from the planting hole thoroughly mix in a roughly equal amount of organic compost or peat moss with a slow release fertiliser such as manutec planting tablets added. Return some of this mixture to the hole and tamp it lightly so that when placed on the tamped soil the top of the plants root ball will be about 50-75mm above the surrounding soil surface.
Then fill in around the root ball with remaining soil mixture and water in well. If the root ball sinks during watering carefully raise it back to above the surrounding soil surface. In time the plant will settle a bit as the organic matter in the soil decays but the high planting will compensate. When you finish planting make a watering basin by forming a ridge of soil around the outside of the filled in hole. Add a mulch over the soil around the plant and just covering the top of the root ball. The watering basin ridge will help to keep the mulch in place.
Heavy Soils; if you have heavy soils there are three options for planting;
¦ A) use organic matter or compost to improve a broad shallow saucer shaped hole in the soil, plant the camellia high with the top of its root ball above the soil surface and mulch heavily. The elevated planting will allow better drainage of water from the root zone.
¦ B) If you want to plant several camellias a good procedure is to create raised beds, filling the beds with a mixture of soil, good quality compost and free draining material such as pumice granules or sharp river sand that will be more to the roots' liking.
¦ C) Plant in containers. They are one of the best plants for long-term residence in containers. Whether you want just one or two as accent plantings or a larger portable collection. Use a good quality potting mix such as Natural Bark Potting Mix available from the garden centre. Put enough into the container so that the top of the root ball is about 30mm below the rim of the container. Fill in around the roots with more potting mix firming by hand and water thoroughly until the water flows freely from the drainage holes.
Camellia Types Camellia Japonica: these are the camellias best known to us. There are thousands of named cultivars of all flower forms and colours. They are particularly hardy. Their foliage is glossy deep green. A careful selection can provide continuous flowering for up to six months of the year. Flower sizes vary from miniatures under 5cm across to the flamboyant 20cm doubles, all great for a garden display or floral art. Popular varieties include Foxes Fancy; (deep dark red), Ballet Dancer (cream shaded coral - pink) and Brushfields Yellow (white with a pale yellow centre). Camellia Quintessence is a hybrid that flowers pure white with a yellow centre and miniature spreading growth habit and a sweet musk fragrance.
Camellia reticulata: these are the largest flowered and most spectacular of all camellias. There are numerous hybrids and often they commence flowering in May. Well-known hybrid varieties include Dr Clifford Parkes (scarlet orange) and Dream Girl (delicate pale satin pink).
Camellia Sasanqua: these are very hardy and are the first flowering of the camellia season beginning last month, by the time the japonicas begin to take centre stage they have mostly finished flowering. They produce an abundance of small blooms often fragrant in a full range of colours of white, through pink to red. They have great versatility. Some varieties are highly desirable as hedge plants, some are vine like and can be used as ground covers in semi shady positions. Some can also be easily espaliered or grown in hanging containers. Smaller leaved varieties can also be trained into topiary forms. Sasanquas are more tolerant of sun than are japonicas and grow well in Wanganui. Popular varieties include; Setsugeka (pure white with yellow stamens), Plantation pink (mid pink) and Yuletide (orange - red). The recently introduced Paradise series camellias perform well in both sun and shade positions and are ideally suited to be grown as hedges and screens.
¦ Gareth Carter is General Manager of Springvale Garden Centre.