I get the email almost weekly. “Helen, can I grow camellias in Zone 6? I’ve always loved them, but I thought they were off-limits for me.” My answer is always the same: yes—but only if you choose wisely. Most camellias are born gardeners of warm climates. Yet after two decades collecting and growing over 200 … Read more
Last spring, my neighbour knocked on the garden gate looking worried. Her prized Camellia japonica ‘Adolphe Audusson’—a deep red treasure she’d planted two years earlier—was turning yellow. Not dramatically, but in that telltale way between the veins while the veins themselves stayed green. I walked over, looked at the plant, and asked one question: “What’s … Read more
I’ll never forget the day I successfully air layered my ‘Donation’ camellia for the first time. That plant had been in my garden for nearly fifteen years—a reliable, generous bloomer with those stunning pink semi-double flowers. For years, I’d watched visitors admire it and ask if they could buy a cutting. But I’d been nervous … Read more
Last spring, I was transplanting a ten-year-old Camellia japonica ‘Elegans’ to a sunnier spot in my zone 8a garden. As I loosened the root ball from its pot, I was struck by something I’d seen hundreds of times before—yet never stopped marveling at. The roots didn’t plunge deep into the soil like an oak or … Read more
I’ll never forget the afternoon I spotted those white fluffy masses clinging to the stems of my beloved ‘Donation’ camellia. At first, I thought it was mould or some harmless debris. But my stomach sank when I realized what I was looking at: cottony camellia scale. I’d been growing camellias for over two decades, yet … Read more
I’ve seen it happen dozens of times in gardens across North Carolina and Georgia: a gardener eager to tidy up their camellias reaches for a hedge trimmer in late spring and gives the whole plant a quick shear. It looks fantastic immediately—neat, compact, uniform. Then comes autumn, and nothing happens. No buds. No flowers. Just … Read more
Ten years ago, I stood beneath my oldest camellia—a magnificent ‘Donation’ japonica that had dominated a shady corner of my garden since before I bought the house—and felt a twinge of guilt. Here was this architectural marvel, heavy with rose-pink blooms every winter, and directly beneath it was bare, compacted earth. Not a single thing … Read more
Every February, my neighbor stops at the fence and asks the same question: “Helen, how on earth is that thing blooming in winter?” She’s pointing at my Camellia japonica ‘Nuccio’s Gem,’ its pristine white double blooms completely unbothered by frost. I love that question. It leads perfectly into the thing camellia enthusiasts get asked most … Read more
The first time I spotted a variegated camellia in full bloom, I actually stopped walking mid-path and just stared. It was a cold February morning in my Zone 8a garden, and there it was — ‘Desire,’ a Camellia japonica with petals so perfectly striped in deep rose and white that it looked almost painted. That … Read more
Every October, I walk out to my back garden with a cup of coffee and stop dead in my tracks. The sasanquas are blooming. While my neighbors’ gardens are winding down, fading into rusty hydrangeas and spent daylilies, my garden is absolutely electric with color. That moment never gets old, even after twenty-plus years of … Read more
