Monthly Tips

November - Plant of the Month

Camellia sasanqua

Camellias always make me think of that old Simon and Garfunkel song. You know the one - "Oh Camellia, you're breaking my heart...". Of course it's a totally inappropriate sentiment because sweet, winter-blooming Camellia sasanqua is anything but a heartbreaker.

Camellias are all over Seattle but most of them are spring bloomers - C. japonica or a hybrid. Sasanqua camellias have the typical big, buxom camellia blossoms but they bloom in late fall or winter when showy flowers are a rarity. Flower color ranges from white through all shades of pink to red; some are fragrant. If the weather turns really cold while your sasanqua is in bloom the flowers will brown but once the weather warms back up new buds will open with fresh flowers. One great thing about sasanqua camellias is that the flowers shatter and fall off, they don't hang on the shrub and turn brown like Camellia japonica's.

[C. sasanqua 'Kanjiro']

Camellia sasanqua 'Kanjiro'
Photo from Monrovia website.

Sasanqua camellias aren't just about the flowers. They have glossy evergreen leaves that make a nice foil for other plants. They typically reach 6-15'x 6-15'. Because the stems tend to be lax, they are a good subject for espalier. Ciscoe Morris saw hummingbirds flocking to a Camellia sasanqua - yet another reason to grow these beauties.

Put C. sasanqua in sun or part shade. It will bloom best in sun but will need more supplemental water. Sasanquas set their buds in the spring so keep this in mind when pruning. If pruning properly, you can prune whenever you like and only lose a few buds, but if you're pruning heavily or shearing (which I don't recommend) do so right after flowering is done.

Check the nurseries now for the best selection of C. sasanqua. Cultivars typically found at the nurseries include 'Apple Blossom' single, deep pink edges, white center, 10'x10'; 'Setsugekka', single white, '8'x 8'; 'Jean May', semi-double, pale pink, 10'x10'; 'Kanjiro'[photo] , semi-double, deep pink; 'Yuletide' single, red with showy yellow stamens, 8'x8'.

So go for a Camellia sasanqua, it will bring cheer to your winter garden and take you back to the 70's in song. (Well, 1 out of 2 ain't bad.)





November - Tip of the Month

Garden Dissatisfaction

I am dissatisfied with my front garden. I have been for years. I re-did the planting 8 or 9 years ago before I started school. It looked really nice for 2-3 years and then things got too big or died or whatever and I have been replacing things in a haphazard manner ever since. I should know better.

So what's the problem with it? It's tiny, which is okay, but there are 5 different paving materials: asphalt, concrete, gravel chips, bluestone and some stupendously ugly flesh-colored tiles on the front stoop - so much for a unified look.

There are a handful of good plants, but not a lot of unity because of my haphazard replacement policy and because I like to trial things. For example, I currently have 3 different kinds of small green and gold striped grasses to see what works best. We also have a tiny patch of lawn. I like having some grass as long as it's kept watered and green in the summer. It is cool under bare feet, a good place to play ball and an excellent foil for plants. However, I think it may be time for ours to go; at this point, my kids are old enough that every ball hit is an over-the-hedge home run.

[Ugly tiles]

So if this mess belonged to a client, what would I do? In an ideal world I'd rip out all the paving (the hideous tiles with particular glee) and give this small yard a functional and attractive entry using only 2 paving materials - concrete and bluestone. I'd probably jettison the grass and put in a patio. Then I'd pick a color theme - purple and gold or rose and gold - and ruthlessly remove plants that don't work and replace them with a limited number of mostly evergreen plants.

Even in a less than ideal world where the hardscaping stays, huge improvements could be made. Limiting the variety of plants, making sure there are plenty of evergreens, and sticking to a color scheme would make the yard much more attractive and lower maintenance.

If you are also dissatisfied with parts of your yard, don't just live with it - assess. It might not need anything radical to improve it. Sit down with paper and write down all the good and bad points and what you want to do with that part of the yard (barbeque, play croquet, etc.). You may just need to replace a few plants and mulch to lower maintenance. Maybe renovating the lawn or adding some comfy chairs is all you need to turn that area into a pleasing spot but you won't know until you really assess it. Of course if you get stuck and want some help, you know where to find me - I'll be home, taking a jack-hammer to those sickly looking tiles.