Sasanqua: The Camelia For Fall

"Sasanqua - The Camelia for Fall"

Easy-to-grow Sasanquas combine stunning autumn flowers with handsome foliage.  Though it's one of the classic plants that define our region and its beauty can dominate autumn, to those enamored with the ostentatious flowers of its winter and spring blooming sibling, the sasanqua will always be "the other camelia".  What an injustice to a shrub that has been cultivated in its native Japan since the 14th century and in the American South for nearly 200 years. 

A mature Sasanqua is smaller than its sister, the Camelia japonica.  Upright selections can grow 10 to 12 feet high and wide.  Mounding types, popularly called dwarf sasanquas, grow only 2 to 5 feet tall and wide.  A sasanqua's leaves are simply beautiful, with many types emerging coppery-bronze and maturing to a glossy, deep green.  Sasanquas also boast a laxity, grace, and airiness unmatched by common camelias.  A sasanqua's branches reach up and out, leaving spaces in between, and its stems are much more pliable.  Combine smaller size with beautiful foliage and a graceful form, and you wind up with a plant you can use in many different ways.

Depending on the selection and where you live, sasanquas can bloom any time from late summer through autumn and into winter.  Flowers may be single, semidouble, or double, usually with a central burst of bright yellow stamens.  Colors range from cherry red to rose to shell pink to the fairest white.  They love sumer heat and can take full sun or light shade.  Sasanquas may lack the fame of common camelias, but you certainly couldn't call them weak sisters.  

Visit Sartin Services nursery today and let one of our knowledgeable sales associates help you choose the new sasanqua that is right for your landscape.  (Be sure to also pick up a bag of Grower's Special to go with it and you will be on your way to a fabulous fall festival of flowers.)

Don't forget your coupon!

Happy Fall Gardening.

Larry Vickers