Gadenin日本語Get the appGet the soil right before you dig the hole
A sasanqua needs acid soil, roughly pH 5.5 to 6.5, with good drainage and plenty of organic matter. On neutral or alkaline ground it will survive for a few years and then decline, yellowing between the veins of the newest leaves while the veins stay green. That is iron shortage caused by pH, not by a lack of iron in the soil, and no amount of feeding fixes it permanently. Test the soil before you plant, not after the plant starts complaining.
If your ground is alkaline, do not try to acidify a planting hole. The surrounding soil will win within a couple of seasons. Plant into a large container, or into a properly built raised bed of acidic potting mix at least eighteen inches (45 cm) deep, and accept that you will be watering it with rainwater.
On acid or neutral ground that drains freely, the preparation is simple. Fork over an area three or four times the width of the rootball, mix a couple of bucketfuls of composted bark or leaf mold into the top spit, and leave the subsoil alone. Sasanqua roots are shallow and fibrous and will never go deep, so the improvement needs to be broad rather than deep.
| Condition | Target | How to tell it is wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Soil pH | 5.5 to 6.5 | Yellow leaves with green veins on new growth |
| Drainage | Water gone from a test hole within 2 hours | Leaves dull and shedding, roots dark and soft |
| Organic matter | Generous in the top spit | Soil dries hard and cracks away from the stem |
| Planting depth | Top of rootball level with soil surface | Bark dark and soft at the base, plant sulks |
| Exposure | Full sun to light shade, sheltered from cold wind | Leaves browned on the windward side |
Planting depth is the mistake that kills
Plant so the top of the rootball sits exactly level with the surrounding soil, or a fraction proud of it. A sasanqua buried even an inch or two too deep will grow slowly, flower poorly and eventually die of collar rot, and the decline is slow enough that people rarely connect it back to planting day. If you are planting on heavy ground, deliberately set it an inch (2 to 3 cm) high and mound soil up to the edge of the rootball, never over the top of it.
Dig the hole twice as wide as the rootball and no deeper than it is tall. Digging deeper and backfilling leaves loose soil under the plant that settles over the following months and pulls the crown down with it. Firm the base of the hole with your heel before the plant goes in.
Tease out the outer roots before planting. Container-grown shrubs almost always have roots circling the inside of the pot, and if you plant them as they are, they will keep circling and strangle the plant years later. Pull the outer half inch (1 cm) of root loose all round with your fingers, and if the base is a solid mat, cut two or three vertical slits down the sides with a knife.
Spacing, and spacing for a hedge
As a free-standing shrub, allow six to eight feet (1.8 to 2.4 m) of eventual width and plant accordingly. Sasanquas are slower and denser than most people expect and it is tempting to plant them close, but a crowded plant is shaded on one side, sets fewer buds there and never recovers its shape.
Sasanqua is one of the few camellias that makes a genuine clipped hedge, and hedge spacing is a different calculation. Set plants two to three feet (60 to 90 cm) apart in a single row, closer at the tighter end if you want a solid face quickly. Prepare a continuous trench rather than individual holes, because uneven soil preparation shows up as uneven growth for the life of the hedge.
Against a wall or fence, keep the rootball at least eighteen inches (45 cm) clear of the base. Soil at the foot of a wall is drier, often full of builders' rubble, and frequently alkaline from old mortar, which is exactly the combination a sasanqua cannot tolerate.
- Soak the plant first Stand the pot in a bucket of water until bubbles stop rising, usually twenty to thirty minutes. A dry rootball planted into moist soil will stay dry, because water moves around it rather than into it, and the plant can die of drought in wet ground.
- Dig wide, not deep Twice the width of the rootball and exactly its depth. Break up the sides of the hole with a fork so roots can get out, particularly on clay where a spade leaves a smooth, glazed wall the roots will not cross.
- Set the level and check it Lay a cane across the hole. The top of the rootball should touch it or sit slightly above. Adjust before you backfill, not after.
- Backfill with the soil you took out Mixed with a little composted bark, but do not create a rich pocket in poor ground. Firm in stages with your fingers rather than stamping, which compacts the shallow root zone.
- Water in and mulch Give at least two gallons (about 10 liters) slowly, even in wet weather, to settle soil around the roots. Then mulch two to three inches (5 to 8 cm) deep, keeping the mulch an inch clear of the stem.
The first two years decide everything
A newly planted sasanqua has a rootball the size of its old pot and nothing beyond it, so it depends entirely on you for water through its first two growing seasons, however wet the weather looks. Rain often runs off the mulch and down the surrounding soil without ever reaching a rootball that is drier and denser than the ground around it. Water thoroughly once a week through the whole first growing season, and through dry spells in the second.
Do not feed in the first season. New roots grow towards moisture, not fertilizer, and a feed applied before the plant has established simply encourages top growth it cannot support. Wait until the spring after planting.
Expect little or no flowering in the first autumn, and remove any buds that do form on a small plant. It is hard to do, but a plant that flowers before it has rooted out is spending resources it does not have. From the second autumn onwards it will make up for it.
Autumn planting suits sasanquas well in mild climates, because the soil is still warm and roots grow on through the cool months. Where winters are hard, plant in spring instead so the plant has a full season to root before facing cold. Never plant into frozen or waterlogged ground.
Record where and when
Write down the planting date, the position, and the pH reading you took beforehand. When a plant starts yellowing three years later, the question that always comes up is whether the ground was ever right, and by then nobody remembers. A single recorded number settles it.
For a hedge, sketch the row and number the plants. Sasanquas in a row rarely grow evenly, and knowing which position was slowest from the start tells you whether you are looking at a soil problem in one spot or a weak plant. Note which end of the row gets the most sun as well, because the difference in flowering along a hedge is usually light, not soil.