GARDENING:
They’re remarkably versatile and always give you a joyous shock of early colour
Buy a camellia if you’re looking for a shrub with extreme elegance. No other plant combines such lustrous foliage with such handsome flowers. Camellias are suitable for every kind of garden, from huge estates to tiny back yards. Great gardens such as Trewithen, in Cornwall have camellias in groves, often with magnolias and rhododendrons.
But for small spaces, a potted camellia will flower for at least a month and carry beautiful leaves all year.
Despite February’s untimely warmth and the March gales, my potted camellias still look pretty. Last summer’s heat made them set more flowers than usual for this spring.
But if I hadn’t watered the pots regularly during last year’s drought, most of the buds would have fallen before they opened. Summer drought causes buds to drop; frost does not. I prune and feed my camellias immediately after flowering — usually in early May. With regular watering, growth is always vigorous after pruning.
For feed, I use slow-release Miracle- Gro Azalea, Camellia and Rhododendron granules.
LOVELY SHRUBBERY
CAMeLLIAS are remarkably versatile. They’re lime haters but, unlike rhododendrons, they need only slightly acid conditions. you can even grow them provided content. acidity powder two years. slightly in into you you near- by the can boost neutral mixing soil also organic sulphur every raise soil, camellias use rainwater whenever for pot-grown you can. Hard water is calcium-rich and reduces acidity over time. Be cautious about choosing your containers, too. Terracotta or timber are fine. Concrete is alkaline and therefore unsuitable. In a large, informal garden, you can leave camellias unpruned. In Camellia favourable metres japonica (29ft). grows conditions even a whopping popular nine C. x williamsii varieties can reach five metres. But like hollies or laurel, camellias respond beautifully to pruning. Most varieties can be used as informal hedging material or even trained on a wall. For containers, it’s best — and less expensive — to choose small young plants. you can then control size and shape with annual pruning. Do that as soon as the last spring flower drops. Mature plants will also need re-potting.
SPOILT FOR CHOICE
THe most popular hardy camellias are varieties of C.
japonica or C. x williamsii —a cross between C. japonica and the Chinese species C.
saluenensis. From Japan, C. asanqua is also hardy. But the flowers open in late early winter and are susceptible to frost.
Among C. japonica varieties, colours run from pure white to deep rose- red. A personal favourite, Adolphe Audusson has big, loosely double red flowers which resemble blown summer roses. But if you prefer more tidy, symmetrical flowers, those of white Miss universe are perfectly formed.
Single-flowered varieties have attractive golden stamens. I grow C. japonica Alba Simplex whose bridal white flowers are pleasingly large. Among bicoloured varieties C. j. Tricolor, is a shocker with pink and white stripes. C. Margaret Davis Picotee has more subtle red margins on the white petals.
Britain’s best-loved camellia is the williamsii variety Donation. The big double flowers have loosely packed, bright pink petals with subtle veining. For containers, single flowered
C. x williamsii St ewe is an even better choice. My chin- high specimen grows in a ceramic pot outside our front door. Weather permitting, it flowers from February to mid-April.