Margaret Thornhill 
The first time I noticed camellia leaf gall on my ‘Debutante’ japonica, I genuinely thought she was dying. The leaves had ballooned into thick, pale, fleshy lumps — almost waxy-looking, completely alien. I stood there staring, convinced I’d done something catastrophically wrong. Turns out, I hadn’t. Camellia leaf gall is one of those plant problems … Read more
I almost lost my ‘Nuccio’s Gem’ to camellia root rot — and I didn’t even know it was happening until the damage was done. That’s the cruel thing about this disease. By the time you notice something is wrong above ground, the roots have often been struggling for weeks, sometimes months. I’ve been growing camellias … Read more
Last summer, I walked out to check on my ‘Survivor’ sasanqua and stopped dead in my tracks. The leaves looked like someone had dusted them with chimney soot. Dark, powdery, and frankly alarming. If you’ve ever spotted sooty mold on camellias, you know exactly that sinking feeling. The good news? It’s treatable, and understanding what’s … Read more
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,…
