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Saturday 5th April, 2025

Hi
New season's Camellias have arrived this week
Sasanqua Camellias are Autumn
Every season has something different on offer and if you have a Camellia flowering in your garden right now, you can bet your boots on the fact that it will be a Sasanqua. The name Sasanqua seems to be a bit of a tongue twister for many and it's important to remember that it is the name given to a species of Camellia. I think that many confuse it with the cultivar name of one called Setsugekka and that really does become a mouthful when you say its full name of Camellia Sasanqua Setsugekka. 
Camellias are natives to Japan and China and have the reputation of being long lived. Most of them will flower in the Autumn, which for us is from now on, and through into the early winter. They are typically characterized by having a smaller leaf and often smaller and more simple flower size than say the Japonicas. Many will know that Sasanqua flowers are fragrant and there is nothing quite like the unique musky fragrance emitted from these Autumn-flowering plants.
Sazanka is what these Camellias are known as in Japan which translates into 'Plum flowered Tea' and this is where the species name Sasanqua is derived from. Historically, the Japanese would dry the aromatic leaves and fragrant flowers to add to the bouquet of their tea. Just while on the subject of tea, Camellia sinensis is a different species which is grown and used in producing  black and green tea, though I believe black tea goes through a fermentation process to become the tea that we know.

 
I love Camellias for lots of reasons. In no particular order, these reasons are...Number one, that they are very hardy and quite forgiving and will grow in most conditions from sun to semi shade though, technically, they do like some afternoon shadow. Number two, that they have a long life; often over 50 years and more like 100, which means for long-term in the garden.
Number three is that they are so useful in all aspects of landscape, from letting them mature into small trees, making pretty awesome standards, to becoming stunning hedges. What makes them so good is that they will tolerate constant pruning, unlike many other plants. Sasanqua Camellias have a reputation for making some of the best hedges and you get the bonus of Autumn flowers.
Number four is their evergreen foliage looks great all year round and then you also get those pretty flowers in the Autumn.
Sasanqua flowers usually range from white through to soft pinks and are more often than not single or informal doubles, although there is a pretty cool and quite popular formal double in pure white called Early Pearly. 
Mine No Yuki translates to snow on the ridge which describes the profusion of double blooms on another white-flowered variety. I have used this one as a hedge around the villa and it's a pretty fine example of a camellia hedge. It really suits the villa with its traditional dark green foliage.

Exquisite has single blooms in the most gorgeous shade of pink, almost looking translucent. Gay Border is another very pretty single/perhaps semi double flowered variety whose blooms are white blushed pink with deep pink borders.
Crimson King is a red single not to unlike Yuletide with single red flowers and quite prominent stamens  An early flowering sasanqua variety with smallish open peony-shaped flowers in a bright ruby rose shade.

 
Jean May is an oldie but a goodie. This award winning Camellia has pretty double blooms of soft shell pink.
Now these are just a few that I spotted that had some flowers on them when they had first arrived and just been unpacked, but this month is when we have our best range happening here, so follow the link and see them all.
What's on sale: Roses,  Olives, Daylilies 
Roses. We need that space for the new season's stock that is due to start to arrive in mid May and so the roses must go. All roses are reduced to $30 from $44.99, and so you will be saving a third.
   
Still a great selection out there to choose from and they still look fab and perfect for planting this time of year. Have a second choice handy in case your selection is missing.
20% of Olives and Day lilies
Olives all 20% off. These make for quite handsome quick growing trees with attractive silver grey foliage. Tolerant of drier, poor soil and full sun. 
Day Lilies or Hemerocallis are great filler plants for those sunny drier gardens though they will almost grow anywhere including quite wet positions. Great for mass planting. 20% of all remaining stock. 

 
NZ Natives $9.99 each or get 10 assorted for $80.00. This special on selected native plants includes:
Pittosporum Eugenoides (lemon wood) and Pittosporum tenuifolium, both of which are reasonable quick growing small to medium trees that are often used for hedging.
Flaxes e.g. Green dwarf or Cookianium which are both smaller growing varieties, or Tenax the classic taller one which will almost grow anywhere including wetland areas.

 
Coprosmas of the shrubby kind which generally prefer full sun and good drainage. Favourites include the pretty and glossy-leaved Karo Red and the ground cover Kirkii.
Kanuka and Manuka. Most will know these as the native tea tree. They are fast-growing and the bees love them.
Wine berry Serrated green leaves with purple tones to the under-side, clusters of pink flowers in spring which are followed by juicy black berries that birds love
Corokia Evergreen shrubs with usually yellow flowers in spring followed by either orange or yellow berries.  

 

Carex Virgata, Secta and Dipsacea are all great grasses for those wet areas, though will also grow in normal soil conditions.

Cabbage trees are iconic NZ and look good in any project. Cordyline Australis is included in the special price.
Ake Ake (Dodonaea) purpurea, of the purple leaved persuasion is hardy, evergreen, and a good plant to add colour in the background.
All good for reveg. or planting natives areas. Mass planting of Carex or other grasses always looks really good and especially in drifts, like under the these maples (showing autumn colours) in the pic below.
These are usually $9.99 each or 10 for $90.00 across the price range (so you can choose 10 the same or 10 different). But for you, our clients, we have an extra special price just now of 10 for $80. 
Peonies These stunning perennials that flower with rose-like blooms in the spring are just fab for picking... These are Tubers in prepaks.  Great range of colours and great price: Reduced from  $42.99 to just $36.00.

 
Some pretty cool highlight plants that have just arrived 
Cotinus Grace Std  I have never seen these before and how cool are they? Common name is smoke bush and this is one of the fancy selected forms that have been grown into a standards. Keep trimmed as a standard, or leave as a small tree for the garden. Grace has new spring leaves emerging with crimson purple tones aging to green with a purple tinge as summer progresses and once again deepening in tone prior to leaf fall. The frothy cloud of pink flowers appears in summer.
Cotinus grace as bush form. We don't usually get enough of these but this form is bushy from the ground up, in contrast to the Std described above which is trained with a trunk, so it will grow into quite a large shrub.

 
Liquidambar Gumball 90cm Stds  Liquidambar gumball is a true dwarf liquidambar, well compared to the normal ones, and I imagine will achieve around three metres as a small tree if left without pruning. These are grafted at 90 cm and can be keep clipped as a standard.
Mespilus germanica We have just a few of these; something for the collector. The common name is Medlar and I love this one for its ornamental attributes. It has pretty single blossoms in the spring followed by russet brown fruits that look like guavas... the leaves also colour nicely in the Autumn.

House keeping....  Easter weekend is looming 
We are closed Good Friday but open all the rest of the weekend including Saturday, Sunday and Monday and usual opening hours of 8.30  to 5 pm if you are planning on coming to the nursery from afar.
Anzac day we are shut for the morning and open in the afternoon from 1pm until 5pm.
Mail orders for the three short weeks will still happen but we will not be dispatching any orders to the south island between Tuesday 15/4 and Sunday 27/4. The north island will only have dispatches on 14-15/4 and 22/4 during that time.
Gordonton art trail is free and is happening this weekend Sat and Sun from 10am to 4pm and we do have maps at the shop.
As I look out the window this morning I see that it is raining steadily which I hope will continue for the remainder of the day. I had been out earlier this morn and we had only had three mls overnight, which is better than nothing. A decent amount of the wet stuff will herald in Autumn as the planting season along with all our new Camellias. To be honest, we had already been out their planting our restoration reserve as we figured that it had to rain sometime soon.

 
Finally, this weekend we get to turn our clocks back and for all of those early risers like me there will be a glimmer of light again in the mornings, though the trade off is the shorter evenings.
Enjoy my favourite season of the year, especially the fact that it's now raining  in earnest, and have a fabulous weekend.
Cheers from Lloyd, Tony and the Wairere team.

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2012 Newsletters...

Rhubarb Pie (27th January, 2012)

Plums and more plums (4th February, 2012)

Projects and Roses (10th February, 2012)

Lily of the Nile (17th February, 2012)

Apples and Hedges (23rd February, 2012)

Hedges and Zucchini Cake (2nd March, 2012)

Camellias as Hedges (9th March, 2012)

Swan Plants and Blueberries (23rd March, 2012)

Peaches and Tree Dahlias (23rd March, 2012)

Autumn Tree Sale (6th April, 2012)

Rhodos and Azaleas (20th April, 2012)

Feijoa'd Out (27th April, 2012)

Roses n Lemons (4th May, 2012)

Copper n Oil (11th May, 2012)

Small Fruits (18th May, 2012)

The big pot is on (26th May, 2012)

Roses R Us (15th June, 2012)

Tree fetish (15th June, 2012)

Cloning Trees (22nd June, 2012)

Pruning (29th June, 2012)

Planting (6th July, 2012)

On the Move (15th July, 2012)

Lilacs (20th July, 2012)

Lilacs (20th July, 2012)

Grapes (2nd August, 2012)

Campanulatas (17th August, 2012)

Spuds for Xmas (25th August, 2012)

Bee time (31st August, 2012)

Downy Mildew (8th September, 2012)

Best In Show (14th September, 2012)

Flower Power (28th September, 2012)

Cherries Again (5th October, 2012)

Update the garden (12th October, 2012)

Hedges lavs and lilies (19th October, 2012)

Snowballs and Pointed Leaves (26th October, 2012)

Toms, Veg and Pinks (2nd November, 2012)

Lemon and passionfruit slice (6th November, 2012)

Lavenders (9th November, 2012)

Trees and more (16th November, 2012)

Roses are gorgeous (23rd November, 2012)

Dogwoods and Prezzies (30th November, 2012)

Passionfruit and Tamarillos (7th December, 2012)

Christmas Lilies (21st December, 2012)

Merry Xmas (21st December, 2012)



HL Nurseries Limited t/a Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: enquiries@wairere.co.nz