Camellia sasanqua Sekiyo

Camellia sasanqua 'Sekiyo' is one of the autumn camellias with the earliest and most colourful blooms. This variety produces large flowers of a deep and brilliant raspberry pink, single to semi-double, slightly tousled, around a fiery heart of golden stamens. This pink, flirting with fuchsia, has a bluish component in perfect harmony with the evergreen foliage, dark green and glossy. They bloom from September onwards and continue for 3 months on a healthy and vigorous bush of beautiful stature, attractive all year round. It is robust and capable of adapting to windy or sunny situations, however it requires cool soil in summer that is free of limestone. A robust and healthy variety, superb as a background in flower beds, planted as an informal hedge, or grown in a very large pot, regardless of your garden style.

The 'Sekiyo' camellia, introduced in Japan in 1958, is one of the many hybrids derived from the species Camellia sasanqua, which belongs to the family of tea plants. This plant forms a bush with a habit that is bushy, upright and flexible. Its vigorous growth is quite fast, allowing it to reach 1.20 m (4 ft) in height and 1 m (3 ft) in width in 10 years. Adult size can be up to 1.60 m (5 ft) or more in favourable conditions. Flowering, both early and particularly colourful for an autumn camellia, takes place from September to November. This bush produces large flowers measuring 7 to 8 cm (3 in) wide, with a pleasant fragrance, formed by a corolla of deep pink and undulate petals, sometimes adorned with a few additional small petals around a very visible golden yellow stamen centre. They are not long-lasting but continuously renew on the plant, leaving a carpet of petals on the ground like Japanese cherry trees. The foliage, dense, is evergreen in winter. It is composed of dark green, glossy, ovate and leathery leaves, dentate, paler on the underside.

A shrub for a humid oceanic climate and non-calcereous soil, Camellia x sasanqua 'Sekiyo' tolerates the sun and windy sites better than other camellias. It performs better in mild climates than in cold regions, where its hardiness is sometimes lacking and its flowering can be destroyed. Wherever the winter is not too harsh, it can be installed in the garden as a standalone plant, or combined with other ericaceous plants (Rhododendron, azaleas, Hydrangea, Hamamelis) in a flowering hedge. The 'Sekiyo' camellia deserves a prominent location at the entrance to the garden or house, or alongside a pathway. You can dress its base with autumn bulbs such as colchicums or Naples cyclamens. In cold regions it can be installed on a balcony or terrace, and then brought indoors to an unheated veranda or cold greenhouse during the flowering period.