This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. In the spring of my ninth year growing camellias, I walked out to my largest bed and found three established plants sitting in standing water that had been there for at least four days. Two of them were ‘Survivor’ japonicas I … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. When I planted my first camellia back in 2003, I had no idea what I was doing. I bought a generic, unlabeled plant from a big-box nursery, stuck it in full sun with clay soil, and watched it slowly sulk for … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I still remember the spring I lost a twelve-year-old ‘Survivor’ camellia to what I can only describe as fertilizer enthusiasm. It was my fourth season growing camellias seriously, and I pushed nitrogen too early, right before a late frost snapped back … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Three springs ago, I stood in front of a ‘Survivor’ camellia I had planted seven years earlier and felt genuinely defeated. The leaves had gone from that deep, waxy green I love to a sickly yellow-green with darker veins running through … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Three years. Three springs of walking past that ‘April Kiss’ camellia in my side garden, watching it push out healthy dark green leaves while producing exactly zero flowers. I fertilized it. I watered it. I talked to it — yes, I … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. I still remember standing in the garden that March morning, coffee going cold in my hand, staring at my twelve-year-old camellia like I’d just watched a car crash in slow motion. She’d been loaded with … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. It was a gray November afternoon, and my neighbor leaned over the fence with that particular look — the one that says “I’m about to save you from yourself.” He pointed at the small shrub … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. It was a Tuesday in January when my neighbor Linda showed up at my door holding her phone out like it was evidence at a crime scene. On the screen: a photo of her camellia, … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. It was the third week of January, and I was standing in my garden at 6 a.m. in my dressing gown, watching a hard frost settle over my camellias like a slow disaster. One of … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. I still remember standing in my backyard on a January morning, staring at my beloved ‘Kramer’s Supreme’ camellia, its buds turned to brown mush overnight. My neighbor Patty had told me back in October not … Read more
