Camellias with good shape and foliage in containers

Hello

Can anyone advise me about camellias varieties for large containers -- 50cm diameter, 45cm high? I'm not interested so much in the flowers (they'll be in a part of the garden which isn't used much in Autumn and Winter or early Spring) as in the shape and the foliage.

The spot is quite sunny but not overwhelmingly so. There's an automatic watering system so they'll be treated well -- in my experience plants do better in containers than in the ground because of the lack of competition and the good supply of water and nutrients.

A man in a local plant centre advised C. sasanqua varieties -- I don't know if others would agree.

Advice about compost would be useful too -- ericacious of course, but what type exactly works best? Do they need a special ericacious plant food?

 

Hi @Howard Stone. C. sasanqua are winter flowering, and in my experience a bit more tender than the normal japonica and x williamsii varieties. Depends where you live... Some of the williamsii are a bit lanky but they do flower well. I would suggest wandering round garden centre in spring and look for the ones that drop the old flowers tidily, rather than those that hang on looking brown. You would also see the growth habit. Even better if you could go around a public garden eg the ones in Cornwall that specialise in camellia to see mature specimens.

 

Thanks for the note of caution. I’m in London.

 

Oh, in London you should have a milder microclimate, so probably OK. I love the really formal camellias like Nuccio's Pearl...

 

Has anyone had experience of Camellia transnokoensis? Someone said that they would make excellent container plants, with attractive foliage and a light airy form.

 

I grow C sasanqua Narumigata quite happily. Flowers well most winters from December through to February. The flowers are not frost hardy once they are open, turning brown and dropping, however they are rapidly replaced by other buds opening. It and other camellias do not like a summer drought though as the flower buds are formed in summer and abort if too dry at that point. Pleased to say mine has swelling flower buds at the moment. I don't know how it would do in a container.

 

Nigel my friend. As one scientist to another..'Yikes'. Growing plants in containers isn't all that bad. As a plant pathologist & plant scientist, (most confusing combination). Without delving into the depths of botanical science. Hells bells here we go again. Science. Who the hell thoughtthat one up. Back to reality. As long as a plant, aleit a cucculent or a mighty oak, given sufficient soil and nutriement, it will growm. Perhaps not to majestic proportions but survival can be maintaned.

I have always had a great love for trees, so perhaps an added title for me might be...dendolotogist. Watchin a TV program recently by chance, I learned that the Giant Sequorie, the giant redwood. There are existing trees over a thousand year old.. Trust me friends. Here is a trees's history worth following. The TV progam featured Yosemite National Park. USA. I was truly amazed at the information. Despite thes ancient giants live so long. Studying the dendrology of them. Scientist. Here we are again. Have found that within the National Park, now home to these majestic trees. Amazingly. Their roots somehow contradict the traditional beliefs, of, do they?

It was discovered that these giants who span centuries are growing,existing on a bed of granite. Granite as you and I know is non pourous. To the media. Nothing can penetrate it. So unlike plants etc seeking out an existance upon all manner types of soil, our Gian Redwood is baffled to say the least. So how does the ancient giant survive? Science has found tht the roots when hitting ground zero...granite, actually chand direction. Evidence idententifie, the roots spread out and findings have identified that thes giants are sub terrainean supported by vast outstreche root systems. So Nigel. A suitable size container will provide a home for whatever. OK. limited sol and natural nutriement have to be provided. Also perhaps, suitable climatic changes.