I got a very interesting seedling with striped pink/white petals – yuri_panchul_2005_017_nodami_ushiro.

Striped sasanquas are very rare – the only one I know is a hybrid Stars’N'Stripes, and Stars’N'Stripes is not really a typical sasanqua – it is sensitive to sunlight and has elongated leaves comparing to traditional sasanquas. Most bicolor sasanquas are not striped, some are blotched – the blotching pattern is the result of a relatively harmless virus.

My new seedling’s parent is probably Nodami Ushiro. I am going to evaluate it for a while to make sure this striped pattern is stable. In the main time I will probably propagate it by grafting.

I like this chance seedling because:

1. It has wavy petals similar to its possible parent Nodami Ushiro (unfortunately the seedling label was dropped, so I don’t know its seed parent for sure).
2. Is has small shiny leaves like Hiryu.
3. Elegant bicolor.
4. It has straight shoots with small internodes – nice to make bonsai.

I am going to keep and propagate this seedling.

I decided to start writing down all seedling evaluations – even for very poor seedlings. I think it will help me to develop successful evaluation criteria.

I got the seed for yuri_panchul_2003_024_oleifera not from a plant in my garden, but from Camellia Forest Nursery in 2003. The resulting seedling was blooming first time 2009.09.02. The flower is a typical wild-type C. oleifera flower, nothing special. The bush shape is spreading, branches are flexible and have long internodes – this is not practical unless you plant to grow an espalier. Leaves are not shiny and way too large for my taste – the largest leaves are approximately 110×60, 100×60 and 90×70 mm (4.3 x 2.4, 4.0 x 2.4, 3.5 x 2.8 inch). The root system is pretty strong.

The plant was grown in somewhat poor condition – it was too dry during one of the heat waves that coincidentally happened during the period of active growth back in April-May. As a result some leaves are deformed. The plant is also root bound but this can be easily corrected by proper root pruning. There are some slugs living at the bottom of the container – this is natural because the container was standing on a plastic shelf lying on the ground. The damage from these slugs appear to be very minor.

The conclusion. This plant should be used as a rootstock during next February. The root bound problem can be corrected after 1 year.