Planting camellias next to irrigation pipe

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Suzanne0702 Sun City, CA May 10, 2010

I am planting some Camellia Japonica Spellbound shrubs and have several questions:
1. One shrub is going in next to the property line. When I dug the hole about 12 inches wide, it exposed a portion of our irrigation pipe. I can't move the shrub to the other side of the pipe because of space considerations. Will this be a problem? The shrub grows up to 15 ' tall and 10' wide but I doubt the trunk will get thick enough to disturb the pipe.
2. I have read that these shrubs should be planted 10' to 15' apart. However, planting instructions accompanying the shrub say "mass plantings in groups of 3 to 5 will accentuate dense tree plantings." Does this mean I can plant as close as 5' or am I asking for trouble? I would like to plant three of these shrubs and don't have a lot of extra space to work with.
3. I'm going to have the same problem with the irrigation pipe when I plan some Birds of Paradise. Will they invade the pipe too? I know they can get pretty dense as they mature. Now I'm worrying that I won't be able to do what I planned after all because I need to position the largest/tallest plants along the pipe and they're going to be the ones most likely to interfere with the pipe. Any suggestions?

This message was edited May 10, 2010 1:22 PM

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themoonhowl Prairieville, LA(Zone 9a) May 11, 2010

Suzanne, here is some info on camellias. In regards to your question about plant spacing, a basic guide is the spread of the plant. If your plant gets 10 ft wide, then you want 10 ft between plants. 1/2 the spread for each plant. A 6 foot wide plant will need 6 feet between it and the next one. If you have a plant with a 6 ft spread and one with a 10 foot spread, then they should be planted 8 ft apart (3ft +5ft) Camellia japonica is a slow growing plant, so you could possibly fudge the distance a bit.

http://www.mobilecamellia.org/Camellia%20Culture/Growing/growing%20camellias.htm

http://www.gardeninginsouthafrica.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1410:growing-camellias&catid=934:may-2010-edition&Itemid=100037

And some info on Strelitzia
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Grow-Beautiful-Bird-of-Paradise-Plants-in-Your-Garden&id=3708017

S reginae is a wonderful clumping BOP, but S nicolai (white BOP) has a rather invasive root system

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