Practical camellia care from two decades in the garden
Helen Pritchard · August 14, 2026
My inbox has been overflowing lately with photos of struggling camellias. “Is she dying?” people ask. “Should I dig her up?” “Will she come back?” I understand the panic. A camellia in decline can look genuinely hopeless—wilted leaves, yellowing growth, dropped buds. But here’s what twenty-plus years of tending over two hundred named cultivars has … Read more
Helen Pritchard · August 14, 2026
I’m Helen Pritchard, standing in my zone 7b garden on a chilly December morning, with a beautiful camellia in full bloom behind me. It’s ‘Donation’—an orchid-pink semiflower so generous with its petals that I swear it produces more flowers than foliage. Around it, a dozen other cultivars are either budding or already flowering, completely unbothered … Read more
Helen Pritchard · August 14, 2026
Every spring, my inbox fills with fertiliser questions. “Helen, can I use tomato feed on my camellias?” “Is Epsom salt the answer to yellowing leaves?” “What about coffee grounds?” After twenty years and two hundred named cultivars, I’ve learned one thing: gardeners love a kitchen-cupboard shortcut. The trouble is, is tomato feed good for camellias—and … Read more
Helen Pritchard · August 6, 2026
I remember the moment I first spotted something wrong with my Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide.’ Tiny silvery patches had appeared on the upper surfaces of several leaves, almost like sunscald. The plant sat in a bright corner of my garden, so I assumed—wrongly—that it was sun damage. I left it alone for three weeks while the … Read more
Helen Pritchard · August 6, 2026
I get this question at least once a month, usually from someone standing in their garden in late winter, watching a few straggly blooms appear after weeks of heavy flowering. “Helen,” they ask hopefully, “is my camellia reblooming? Can camellias bloom twice a year?” Short answer: no. An individual camellia plant does not produce two … Read more