Practical camellia care from two decades in the garden
Helen Pritchard · June 14, 2026
There’s a corner bed along the east fence in my own garden — the one shaded by an old dogwood — where a client’s photo once made me stop and stare. She’d sent me a picture of her camellia looking exactly like mine did years ago: deep green, dense, healthy as can be, and utterly … Read more
Helen Pritchard · June 9, 2026
Picture a torn plant tag in someone’s hand — that’s the image I keep coming back to from a spring garden show, where a woman stood at my table holding two labels, unable to decide between them. “Sasanqua or japonica — which one?” It’s a question I field constantly, and after two decades tending upward … Read more
Helen Pritchard · June 7, 2026
“What do I even put around a camellia once it’s planted?” a fellow gardener asked me at a plant swap a few years back, phone in hand, showing me a photo of her solitary Camellia × williamsii ‘Donation’ surrounded by nothing but mulch. Funnily enough, I’d asked myself the same thing not long before, staring … Read more
Helen Pritchard · June 4, 2026
Crouched beside a hulking six-foot shrub this morning, secateurs in hand, I keep staring at the little plastic tag still zip-tied to its trunk — it says “compact.” That single word has misled me more times than I care to admit over the past fifteen years of buying nursery-labeled camellias, only to watch them balloon … Read more
Helen Pritchard · June 2, 2026
Most camellias are odorless — full stop. That single fact catches nearly everyone off guard the first time they hear it, and I watched it land like a small deflating balloon at a winter garden society gathering last year when a member asked me point-blank which of my camellias smelled the best. Three dozen faces … Read more
Helen Pritchard · May 31, 2026
Fifteen years — that’s how long my ‘Donation’ camellia had occupied the same patch of ground before I decided to dig her up and march her clear across the garden. She’d grown into a sprawling four-foot beauty, smothered in crimson blooms, and by the time I made my decision, she was throwing so much shade … Read more
Helen Pritchard · May 28, 2026
Can a Zone 6 garden actually support camellias? Straight answer: absolutely, provided you’re picky about which ones you plant. This question lands in my inbox constantly, usually from someone who assumed camellias were reserved for milder climates further south. Most camellias, it’s true, evolved for gentler winters. Still, after twenty-plus years cultivating more than 200 … Read more
Helen Pritchard · May 26, 2026
Most camellia problems I’ve solved over two decades trace back to one invisible culprit: soil pH. You can have perfect drainage, consistent watering, and afternoon shade—yet your camellias still yellow, drop buds, and sulk. The leaves start looking anemic. Growth stalls mid-season. That’s usually pH talking, not bad luck. Camellias are finicky about acidity. They … Read more
Helen Pritchard · May 23, 2026
Hi there! I’m Helen Pritchard, and I’ve spent over two decades nurturing camellias in my garden here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. With more than 200 named cultivars under my belt, including favorites like ‘Donation’, ‘Brushfield’s Yellow’, and ‘Nicky Crisp’, I’ve learned a thing or two about what makes these stunning plants tick. Growing camellias … Read more
Helen Pritchard · May 21, 2026
A late-February hard freeze dipped into the low twenties here in my zone 8a garden a few years back, and it pushed me to dig up and relocate a ten-year-old Camellia japonica ‘Elegans’ that had been sitting in a spot suddenly too exposed to the wind. Sliding the root ball free of its planting hole, … Read more