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camellias as foundation? pics
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Posted by BoCRon z7a GA (My Page) on Tue, Mar 8, 05 at 12:34
I am in the process of re-doing my foundation. The front of the house is north facing. I had blue princess hollies, tea olives, daphne and hawthorne of some sort. Anyway, the tea olives grew too big, the hollies and hawthornes were struggling from the lack of sun, the daphne is very happy. I dug everything up except the daphne and moved them 3-4 weeks ago and now want to re-plant with more shade tolerant plants. My husband loves camellias and would like to put one on either side of the front steps where the blue princess hollies were. We had a camellia on the other corner of the house that thrived until it got hit by lightning. It was a japonica and I think it was called "Elizabeth Acree".
Anyway would y'all advise the camellia in this situation. If so, which kind? I would like one that I can keep around 5-6 ft tall. Slow growth if fine. I'm thinking of a white flowering variety, DH wants red. So recommendations of either color would be great.
Thanks,
Annette
a pic from last year
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RE: camellias as foundation? pics
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| You all have a very pretty house. I especially like the sidelights on either side of your front door and what appears to be a transom over the door. With camellias attaining a very large size at maturity, are you sure that you want to plant a pair at your front door steps and thus eventually hide the sidelights? If so, I think it would be a good idea to plant a low-growing one like _Camellia hiemalis_ 'Showa-no-Sakae,' or maybe _Camellia sasanqua_ 'Yuletide,' which grows slowly and is rather compact. _Camellia hiemalis_ 'Dawn' is a good white late fall and winter bloomer--with remarkably frost-resistant flower buds. Even though these cultivars take up less space at maturity than most camellias, I think they may grow too large for the planting space in question. And I would certainly hate to butcher a camellia by shearing it to keep it in bounds. A _Camellia rusticana_, or snow camellia, might be the solution. I think the snow camellia is naturally low-growing. Nuccio's offers a good selection of snow camellias in their mail order catalog. |
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