Last February, I walked out to my garden and felt my stomach drop. My Kramer’s Supreme’ japonicas — plants I had been nursing for over a decade in my Zone 8 garden — were covered in the telltale brown blotches…
My knees started sending serious complaints about three years ago. I grow camellias in Zone 8b, and pruning season means long stretches of kneeling on hard clay soil. Between my Kramer’s Supreme’ Japonicas along the back fence and the sprawling…
Last June, I nearly lost two of my most prized camellias to summer drought stress. I’ve been growing camellias in Zone 7b for over two decades, so you’d think I’d have the watering thing figured out. But that summer hit…
Last summer nearly broke my camellia hedge. After twenty-three years of growing camellias in Zone 8b, I thought I had watering figured out. Then a brutal July hit — weeks of 95°F days, bone-dry soil, and me traveling for work…
Three years ago, I nearly lost two of my most prized Japonicas. The culprit wasn’t a pest or a late frost. It was my own neglect of something basic: proper mulching. My soil was compacting badly between waterings, the pH…
Last spring, I stood in my backyard staring at a row of struggling camellias and felt genuinely baffled. I’ve been growing camellias for over twenty years. My yard in Zone 8b is practically a camellia museum. Yet three of my…
Last February, I stood in front of my oldest Kramer’s Supreme’ Japonica and felt genuinely embarrassed. Twenty-three years I have been growing camellias in my Zone 8b garden, and somehow I had let that poor shrub turn into a tangled,…
Last spring, I walked out to my back garden and felt my stomach drop. A dozen of my most treasured camellias — plants I had nurtured for over two decades in my Zone 8b garden — were coated in what…
I’ve been growing camellias for over twenty years. In that time, I’ve made plenty of mistakes — wrong soil pH, wrong pruning timing, wrong everything. However, nothing frustrated me more than watching my potted camellias slowly decline despite my best…
After twenty-plus years of growing camellias in my Zone 7b garden, I thought I had my fertilizing routine figured out. Then came back-to-back seasons of yellowing leaves, sparse blooms, and one particularly sulky Camellia japonica Nuccio’s Gem’ that refused to…
