Beautiful camellias

It’s that time of year when the sasanqua types are in their full glory. My favourite I talked about previously - C. SETSUGEKKA; it has the darkest green foliage and offers a really eyecatching display of clear white flowers over the bush. What I like most is that the flowers drop cleanly onto the ground, even while still white, so you are not left with brown mushy blooms on the plant, which was a major "turn-off" of the older varieties from our grandparents’ day.

If your camellias are not looking as green and healthy as they should, give some slow release acid fertiliser and add a layer of mulch around the root area. This will help the ground around the plant to better retain moisture throughout the next summer. From November onwards the camellias like to grow vigorously, this is when you need to trim and shape them. Once you get past January you need to be more careful about attacking your camellias with the hedgeclippers as they won’t be far away from setting flower buds.