Practical camellia care from two decades in the garden
Helen Pritchard Helen Pritchard · February 24, 2026
Every leaf on my ‘Survivor’ sasanqua had gone a flat, ashy black by the afternoon I finally stopped to really look at it, and that color alone told me something was badly wrong before I’d even touched a branch. It reminded me of chimney soot brushed across the foliage — dark, powdery, unsettling to see … Read more
Helen Pritchard · February 21, 2026
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…
Helen Pritchard · February 19, 2026
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…
Helen Pritchard · February 17, 2026
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…
Helen Pritchard · February 14, 2026
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…
Helen Pritchard · February 12, 2026
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…
Helen Pritchard · February 9, 2026
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…
Helen Pritchard · February 7, 2026
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,…
Helen Pritchard · February 5, 2026
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…
Helen Pritchard · February 2, 2026
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…