Re: What to plant beneath camellias


Tony & Moira Ryan, Wainuiomata New Zealand
Average annual climate (Zone 9)
Minimum -2°C; Maximum 28°C Rainfall 2000mm
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N Sterman wrote:
A friend has a row of camellias that have lost their skirts - their lower 2-3' of trunks are completely bare She'd like to plant something beneath them but what? I am not sure there is enough room around the roots, I'll be exploring that tomorrow, but if there is, what can I tuck in there other than ferns? She lives on a bluff just over the beach so the temperature is mild, even in full sun, and the air is humid.
If there is no room around the roots, can I put any soil over the roots? Or will that suffocate them? 

Thanks!


Nan
I am concerned that Karrie has found it so dangerous to let the ground under Camellias develop a mulch cover. This would certainly tend in my experience to drive the main feeding roots down below their preferred growing level. I have myself a whole row of camellias as an informal hedge and these live happily in a thick layer of their own leaves and fallen flowers, plus oak and maple leaves which blow in, getting no other feed and suffering no perceptible diseases. I realize however that this might no be so successful in areas where Camellia blight or othr fungus diseases are rampant but I cannot imagine any Camellia being happy with just a cover for its roots of bare earth, which would surely not retain enough summer moisture. As a substitute one could perhaps use a layer of clean shredded bark, or more profitably shredded ramiel wood (young prunings of any kind of deciduous or broad-leaved evergreen, not conifers, no more than 2-3" diameter). This would be desirable for any understory plants as well
You have had a great response to your request or suggestions of companion plants. A few more which could be used include toad Lilies (Tricyrtis), bleeding heart and Corydalis and for summer colour Impatiens.
As to whether planting things over the top will harm the Camellia roots, many of the plants suggested are pretty shallow rooted anyway and planting others will only do a small amount of damge which will be soon repared. I thnk you will find anyway there is a small leeway between the top of the roots and the soil surface, but if you think this is too shallow I don't think the Camellias would be discomforted at all by a shallow layer of good well-ripened compost being added around them, which you could then plant into.
Moira
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