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ikea_gw

Is this too shadey for camellia williamsii?

ikea_gw
14 years ago

I read that camellia williamsii will bloom more than japonica in shady locations. I bought a taylor's perfection yesterday and I wonder if a shady location under dogwoods and other deciduous trees will be too shady for it. No direct sun except for the winter. The location however gets a lot of runoff rain water. There is english ivy and a mountain laurel there right now, but the laurel grows sideways to get to the sun so it needs to be moved. I think though this is more because of how mountain laurel grows. Even in full sun, they tend to spread out and grow sideways.

Comments (2)

  • luis_pr
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dappled sun should be ok but I am not sure if that is what you meant. It bothers me that ML was growing sideways since I do not see that sideways behaviour here in -almost- full sun.

  • carolinamary
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm so glad to hear about Taylor's Perfection, since we have a mostly shady yard here too. I just bookmarked it at the American Camellia Society's website; it's a beautiful plant! Thanks for posting the information on it.

    We have a native kalmia latifolia that we actually moved from our spot in the woods in the mountains to our yard here. It's planted in perhaps a slightly too shady spot, but in enough sun to bloom really well, along with the azaleas it's planted alongside. The plant is competing with the azaleas for the light because they've been there so long (around 35 years) that they've been overcrowded for a long time. They all grow toward the side with the most available sunlight, the same as the azaleas do. (Light is blocked from all but one direction by larger ajacent rhododendrons.)

    We have some other kalmias that were purchased and those are growing in a good amount of sun or too little sun. Those are not growing sideways, even the two in too little sun. They do tend to get bushier in more sun, but the overall direction for any of them is still not sideways to one side or another, but fairly balanced all around. Those in too much shade (from very tall deciduous trees all around) are a bit leggy and they don't bloom as well as the others. They perhaps lean a bit more southerly but they don't grow sideways.

    Perhaps your kalmias are like our natives that are growing toward the one direction where they can get the strongest light, even if it's not direct sunlight? The lower your shade trees, the lower the kalmia would have to slant itself in order to maximize the available light to it. It might be getting enough sun through that growth adjustment to bloom reasonably well, but might not be quite so attractive overall as you might wish. It seems to me that a camellia in that spot might try to do the same thing, and would likely at least not grow as upright in that location as in some other spot, even a shady spot, if the shade were coming more evenly. The question might eventually come down to how you like the shape of the plant in that location, as it might bloom reasonably well. If you can tweak the spot to move it out from under any lower trees like dogwoods, even if it has more shade from the tall deciduous trees, you might like it better. Just a guess, though.

    I love ivy and we once had a yard full of a "slow-growing" variety, started from a pinch of some else's. It was slow-growing the first year, and I so longed for it to spread more rapidly! Well, it must have read my mind, because it got started after a year or two, and when it got started, you wouldn't believe how active it became. It killed some azaleas and got a pretty good start on killing some larger trees too. We still do have some ivy that needs removing before it kills a tree that is probably 150 feet tall. I still do love its looks, but now I think the most ivy I'd ever have again would be something in a pot, maybe indoors, with an expectation that at least indoors there'd be some limit to how deeply and thickly it could send down its roots!

    Well, good luck with your Taylor's Perfection. Please let us know how it does, along with some pictures, if possible.

    Best wishes,
    Mary

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