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About Camellias

If you've never grown a camellia in your garden before, then there really is no excuse, because you can choose from more than 3,000 named varieties.
There are four species; Japonica, Sasanqua, Reticulata and Hybrid camellias.

At Baulkham Hills Lawn Mowing we like Camellias for the beauty of their flowers, although very few have a scent. The flowers also come in many shapes and sizes.

They are quite a tough plant and fairly easy to look after although the soil should be kept damp and not allowed to dry out.

They need acidic soil to survive, requiring a ph level of between 5 and 6.5. Special potting mix is available for camellias.

Camellias may be grown in pots, but need to be moved to bigger pots to prevent them becoming root bound. They can be grown indefinitely in big pots around 600mm across.

Most of the camellias you see growing in private and public gardens are japonicas. Sasanquas are a bit hardier and easier to grow but only have a very small flower which falls very quickly.

The sasanqua is an early flowerer and is finished by early June when the japonica takes over.

Japonica has many types of flowers and names, and colours go from snow white to very dark red, almost tinged with black. There is also one which comes out quite a deep purple

Japonicas start flowering in May and continue until the end of September.

During the middle of July the reticulata starts flowering and also continues until the end of September.
Reticulata is the larger flowering camellia. They do tend to require very regular pruning to prevent them from getting too tall with all the foliage and flowers at the top.

There are four main types of camellia flowers. The formal double has lots and lots of petals. The informal double has a "lettuce like" formation, but is much smaller. Semi-doubles feature a massive column of stamens in the centre. The double centre has a profusion of little petals in the middle of a flower with large outer petals.

Camellias need very little fertilising. Though about the middle of August to the middle of September is the best time to give them a push along.