Sasanqua Camellia Camellia sasanqua Something Special

Something Special is the low grower among the sasanquas in this range. It builds a compact, spreading, densely twiggy bush rather than a tall screen, and it carries soft pink flowers through autumn into early winter on that low frame. The habit sets the uses: a low clipped hedge along a path, a mass planting under a window where a taller camellia would take the light, an edging to a shaded bed, or a wide pot. The small grades are produced for exactly those long, low runs.

Low and wide by nature

The value in a naturally low camellia is that it stays low without being fought, and it puts its growth sideways instead, which is what fills the ground between plants. It is grown in temperate and subtropical gardens alike. Part shade is the position: sasanquas take brighter conditions than the japonicas, but a hot afternoon will brown open flowers in a single day, and on a low planting those flowers sit at the height people actually look at. Soil acidic, free draining and rich in organic matter, mulch over the shallow roots, moderate water. For a low hedge, plants around 600mm apart close over reasonably quickly; at a metre they stay as separate mounds and the run reads as a line of shrubs rather than an edge.

Lawn sprinklers will not water it

The problem specific to a low planting is that it usually sits inside the lawn irrigation, and lawn irrigation does not water a camellia. Pop up sprinklers running short daily cycles wet the mulch and the top centimetre of the root ball and no further, and much of that evaporates off a low dense canopy before it reaches anything living. The plants sit half dry all summer while the controller records a watering every day, then shed their buds in autumn and flower thinly. Put the run on its own line, water it deeply and less often, and check by pushing a finger through the mulch instead of trusting the timer. Mass plantings also dry from the ends inward, so look at the outside plants of a run first when the weather turns, and remember that a dense low canopy sheds a surprising amount of light rain straight past the root zone.

Why not just keep a tall one cut down

It is a fair question, and the answer is what happens at the base. Plantation Pink and Pure Silk are boundary and tall hedge plants, and holding either at 600mm means heading the leaders back constantly. Every cut lands above the same point, the plant thickens into a knuckle along the top and goes bare and woody underneath, and it never flowers properly because most of the wood carrying buds is removed each year. Something Special makes its growth sideways to begin with, so a shear only tidies it. Use it in front of the taller sasanquas as a lower tier, or on its own where sightlines matter and a tall hedge would be in the way. It also brings the flowers to eye level for anyone seated, which is the point of a low run along a terrace.

Shearing a low run

Trim as soon as flowering finishes, since like the rest of the sasanquas it forms the coming autumn's buds on spring and summer growth. Shear lightly and often on a low hedge rather than hard once a year, and keep the top slightly narrower than the base so light reaches the lower branches, which matters more on a low planting than a tall one because there is less of the plant to lose. Feed a long low run from a spreader rather than by the handful, twice a year with a camellia and azalea product, since a dense low canopy hides where the last handful landed and the doubled patches are the ones that burn. Keep mulch over the root zone and clear of the stems. Sweep the shed petals off paving beside a low run, since they land directly where people walk rather than under a canopy.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 70mm up to 300mm, priced from $16.95 to $119.00 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.