“How long until it actually looks like something?” I hear this question at least twice a month from new camellia gardeners. They’ve just planted a 2-gallon nursery specimen in their garden, and they’re standing there wondering if they’ll need to wait five years—or fifty—before their camellia growth rate finally produces a respectable hedge or specimen … Read more
“Helen, do you really just use kitchen scraps on all your camellias?” I get this question at least twice a year, usually from someone who’s seen a photo of my garden and assumes my 200-plus plants must be thriving on nothing but coffee grounds and good intentions. The honest answer is no. And I’m going … Read more
Last spring, a gardener from North Carolina emailed me a question that stopped me in my tracks. She’d been reading the usual camellia companion-planting advice—the same azaleas and hydrangeas everyone recommends—and asked something wonderfully practical: “What actually grows there in nature, where camellias come from?” It’s a question I’d never been asked directly, but it … Read more
Every spring, someone stops by my patio and asks the same question while eyeing my collection of potted camellias: “Can I plant something else in there with it?” I understand the appeal completely. A 50-litre pot devoted to a single camellia can feel like wasted space, especially when you’re juggling dozens of containers in a … Read more
Every February, I walk through my Zone 8a garden with my morning coffee, and the camellias are usually putting on their best show. Last winter, though, I stopped dead in front of my ‘Debutante’ — a pale blush japonica I’ve grown for fifteen years. Her blooms had turned a muddy, sickly brown seemingly overnight. Not … Read more
A few years back, I nearly lost one of my most treasured plants — a gorgeous Camellia japonica ‘Adolphe Audusson’ that had been growing in my Zone 8a garden for over a decade. The leaves had turned a sickly, yellowish-grey on top, and the undersides looked like someone had dusted them with dirty white chalk. … Read more
Every spring, I walk my garden after the last japonicas have finished blooming, and I face the same question I get asked more than almost any other: should I be deadheading camellias? It sounds simple. Pull off the dead flowers, keep things tidy, move on. However, after twenty-plus years and a collection that now runs … Read more
Monthly Camellia Care Calendar: What to Do Every Month of the Year After decades of growing camellias in my garden, I’ve learned that success comes from understanding what your plants need at each stage of their annual cycle. Rather than treating camellia care as a vague year-round task, I’ve found it enormously helpful to follow … Read more
Every spring, I get some version of the same message from a fellow camellia grower: “Helen, I pruned my camellias and now they won’t bloom. What did I do wrong?” Knowing when to prune camellias is honestly one of the most critical pieces of camellia knowledge you can have — and it’s one of the … Read more
I killed a ‘Nuccio’s Gem’ once. Not through neglect, not through frost, but through water — or more precisely, through watering it the exact same way in July as I did in February. It sat in my Zone 8a garden looking increasingly sorry for itself all summer, leaves yellowing at the edges, new growth limp … Read more
