Andrea, Author at Andrea Whitely Garden Consultant

It’s winter here and there is no greater joy than seeing the stunning blooms of camellias in other people’s gardens as I travel around conducting garden maintenance in Perth as well as in my own garden.

These plants you would think, belong in cold climate gardens and have no place in Perth, not true. Our winters are pretty mild in comparison to other parts of the world and this winter we’ve been blessed with some lovely warm, sunny days with rainy evenings. This has been great for gardens and absolutely fabulous for camellias.

It is true that in recent years camellias have gone out of fashion for many designers and so you don’t see them featured as much as you used to but I am here to share with you that you really can’t get a tougher plant that needs less water or love.

My dear old Dad, who has sadly long since passed and was always a visionary for so many things, once said to me, “You guys should grow blueberries” and that my husband and I should create a blueberry farm, long before blueberries were as much a part of our staple diet as they are now. Pretty much everyone now includes at least one or two punnets of blueberries in their shopping trolley each week, I know we do. Life got in the way and we never did create a blueberry farm. Anyway, this week, in the mid of #stayathome and #flattenthecurve and #wewillgetthroughthis, I decided it’s time to plant some blueberries and plant them I have.

So Many Varieties, Which One to Choose?

I chose the variety ‘Sunshine Blue’ or Vaccinium corymbosum x ashei x darrowi, as they are a semi-dwarf variety and will only grow to about 1.8metres and that’s plenty big enough. In saying that though, they will be restricted by the size of the pot I have put them in. This variety does not need a cold winter (it needs only 150 hours of winter chill) and is semi-deciduous, so perfect for our less than cold winters here in Perth. In Perth, you can also grow, Vitality, Blueberry Burst, Blueberry Kisses, Misty, Sharpes, Blue Rose, Biloxi and Denise.

Author: Andrea

This Week In The Garden, I Am Admiring My Camellias In Full Bloom

This Week In The Garden…I Am Planting Blueberries