Long-Flowering Favourite

Of All The 3000-odd Cultivars And Hybrids Of Camellia, Sasanqua Has Long Been Popular In Australian Gardens

- Jennifer Stackhouse

Sasanqua camellias really earn their keep in the garden. Flowering from late summer to winter and peaking in autumn, they make a lengthy impact.

The flowers, which may be white, pink or red and range from single to double, are also attractive to nectar-eating birds including parrots and honeyeaters as well as to beneficial insects. Many sasanquas are also lightly perfumed and can be picked to use as cut flowers though they last only a day or two.

Sasanqua camellias thrive in most parts of Australia, from the subtropics to the cool zones. Autumn to winter are good times to plant camellias with many in flower and ready to plant.

USEFUL PLANTS

In the organic garden, sasanqua camellias can be used as sheltering evergreen shrubs for hedges and screens to protect the garden from wind.

Varieties range in size from a compact 1m high to more than 4m. All can be clipped into compact hedges while large varieties that are left unpruned may become small trees.

Sasanqua camellias form a dense evergreen hedge 2–3m tall in three to five years. When selecting camellias for hedging, choose named varieties that grow to the height and width required and space them 50–90cm apart.

Install a drip or micro-spray irrigation system along the length of the hedge to aid watering. Use stakes to support the new plants until they are well established and the trunk has thickened.

One of the fastest-growing varieties for a hedge is ‘Plantation Pink’, which has single pink flowers. It is also suited to training as an espalier specimen against a flat surface such as a wall.