Japanese Camellia Camellia japonica Desire

Desire holds its shape more tidily than most japonicas. The flower is a formal double, ranks of overlapping petals opening close to white at the centre and deepening to a clear pink around the outer edge, so a bush in bloom looks as though somebody graded it by hand. It flowers from winter into spring on an upright, compact, evenly branched frame carrying glossy dark leaves. This is a plant for a sheltered feature position, a shaded courtyard bed or a large pot, and it is not a plant for a rough boundary.

The February that costs you the flowers

Desire lays down its buds in late summer, and the whole season turns on that moment. Let the root zone dry out then, even for a fortnight, and the buds are shed the following autumn. The plant looks perfectly healthy throughout, and the failure only appears months later as a bush that flowers thinly or not at all. Almost nobody connects a bare winter to a hot dry stretch in February, but that is usually the sequence. The answer is unglamorous: keep water moderate and even from January through to the end of March, mulch the surface roots so the soil does not swing between wet and bone dry, and check with a finger under the mulch rather than trusting the look of the surface. Formal doubles also hold water in the petal, so heavy rain marks an open bloom. High canopy or an eave overhead keeps the display clean, and the position is worth choosing for that as much as for the light.

Position, soil and pot culture

Temperate gardens through the southern and eastern states suit it, along with cooler elevated parts of the subtropics. Morning sun with shade from the middle of the day is the position. Soil should be acidic, free draining and worked up with compost, then mulched rather than cultivated, since the roots run close to the surface and a fork through them sets the plant back a season. Run several as a low informal screen at about a metre apart and let each keep its own outline instead of clipping them into a wall, because the flower is the reason for the plant and hard shearing removes it. The compact frame takes container growing well, provided the mix stays evenly damp and the pot stands out of afternoon glare.

Desire beside Nuccios Jewel

Nuccios Jewel works the same white to pink gradient, but as a fuller peony to formal double bloom on a slower and more spreading bush that opens later in the season. Desire is the neater plant and the more geometric flower, and it starts earlier, so the two extend each other rather than repeat. For the identical formal double construction in dark red, Black Tie is the one. Against the sasanquas in this range, Desire flowers months later and will not accept the same hard clipping, so it is no substitute in a hedge. Choose it where a single plant will be looked at from close range, and see the rest of the flowering plants for what goes around it.

A light annual cut

This one needs less cutting than most. Take what you need immediately after the last flower drops in spring, because growth made from then through summer carries the following winter's buds. On a young plant, tip prune to build a branched frame rather than a few long canes. On an older one, remove crossing wood and shorten the occasional shoot that has run past the outline, then leave it alone, since hard cutting spoils the even branching that makes the plant worth having in the first place. Two feeds carry the plant: one behind the cut, and one in late summer as the buds form, which is the dose that decides the following winter. Use a camellia and azalea product and put it onto soil that is already damp. Deadhead by hand, because the doubles brown on the bush instead of shattering.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 180mm up to 300mm, priced from $36.95 to $159.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to camellia hedges and winter flowers.