Sasanqua Camellia Camellia sasanqua Beatrice Emily

Beatrice Emily has stayed in production for decades on the strength of one thing: a full formal white bloom with the outer petals washed lavender to soft purple. Nothing else in this range carries that colour. It opens through autumn, when a shaded border has little else working, on an upright and reasonably dense frame that clips into a hedge, trains flat against a fence or a wall, and holds a narrow line beside a path without demanding much ground.

The lavender wash, and where it holds

The colour is the reason to plant it, so treat the position as a colour decision rather than a survival one. Sasanquas cope with brighter conditions than the japonicas, and this cultivar will grow in more sun than it flowers well in. The published culture note is part shade, and part shade is where the lavender wash stays lavender instead of bleaching towards plain white by the second day a bloom is open. Morning light with cover from hot afternoon sun is the position, from coastal gardens through to the tablelands in temperate and subtropical districts. It is also the pale sasanqua worth training flat on a wall, because the wash reads at close range and is largely thrown away when the plant is a hedge face seen from across a lawn. Water moderately and keep it up through a dry autumn while the buds are forming, since a thirsty plant simply sheds them.

Wet feet, and planting on a mound

What kills sasanquas in this country is not cold, it is drainage. Heavy clay that stays sodden for days after rain rots the fine surface roots, and so does the more common version of the same mistake: a hole dug into clay and backfilled with light potting mix, which fills and holds water like a bathtub with the plant sitting in it. The bush goes dull, then yellow, then bare from the base upward, over a couple of seasons. On clay, do not plant into a pit at all. Improve the whole bed or run with compost and coarse organic matter, then raise it, and set the root ball on a low mound with the top of it standing above the surrounding level so water sheds away instead of collecting. Mulch over the mound, keep it off the stem, and resist the habit of building a watering basin around the trunk.

The pale sasanquas compared

Pure Silk is white with a pink flush and is grown here into large grades for buying a hedge by the run, while Setsugekka is a bigger, wavier white on a more open frame that suits a specimen. Beatrice Emily is the one carrying lavender in the petal, and it is offered in the smaller and mid grades, which points it at a run you intend to train from the start rather than one that has to look settled on the day it goes in. Choose it when the flower colour is the reason for the plant and you have the seasons to grow the hedge on yourself.

Growing the hedge on yourself

Cut once the autumn flowering has finished, any time from early winter through to the start of spring growth, and not after that. Sasanquas carry their buds on wood made the previous spring and summer, so a hedge sheared in December is a hedge with next autumn's flowers on the ground. Start shaping in the first year rather than letting plants run up and correcting later, because the side branching produced by early light clipping is what makes the base of a hedge solid, and a bare base is slow to repair. Small frequent clips build density better than one hard annual cut. Feed straight after the cut with a camellia and azalea fertiliser, water it through, and give a second application in late summer as the buds swell. Potted plants take the same food at half strength, always onto damp mix.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 70mm up to 200mm, priced from $16.95 to $38.95 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.