Practical camellia care from two decades in the garden
Helen Pritchard · March 13, 2026
Twenty-two years ago, fresh into growing camellias and far too confident for my own good, I snipped a piece of ‘Nuccio’s Gem’ — a formal double japonica I’d only just brought home — and dropped it straight into a jar of water on the kitchen sill, fully expecting roots within days, the way pothos or … Read more
Helen Pritchard · March 1, 2026
A soggy stretch of March weather settled over my zone 8a garden one year, and when the clouds finally broke, I walked out to find my ‘Debutante’ japonica covered in something I’d never seen before — swollen, waxy lumps where healthy leaves should have been. My first thought was that she was on her way … Read more
Helen Pritchard · February 13, 2026
Most camellia growers don’t realize they’re hosting a pest problem until leaves start yellowing or flowers arrive stippled and bruised. That’s when panic sets in. After 20+ years tending camellias across the Pacific Northwest, I’ve learned that knowing which insects actually threaten my plants—and which ones I can safely ignore—saves me time, money, and unnecessary … Read more
Helen Pritchard · December 21, 2025
An unseasonably long gray spell settled over my zone 8 garden in early January this past winter, and for almost ten days straight, the only real color anywhere on the property came from a single ‘Yuletide’ clinging to its last few blooms. Everything else had either finished or hadn’t started yet. That gap taught me … Read more
Helen Pritchard · December 19, 2025
That plastic tag stuck in the pot at the nursery gives you a photo, a cultivar name, and maybe a vague note about “part shade.” What it won’t tell you is how to sequence your bloom season, why one japonica might sulk in your particular soil while another thrives, or how a single missed detail … Read more
Helen Pritchard · December 16, 2025
Extend Your Camellia Season: Varieties for Continuous Blooms Hi there! I’m Helen Pritchard, and as a lifelong gardener in the Pacific Northwest, I’ve spent over two decades cultivating camellias. With more than 200 named cultivars under my belt — from sasanquas to japonicas and hybrids — I’ve learned a thing or two about how to … Read more
Helen Pritchard · December 14, 2025
Nearly every camellia grower I’ve talked to over the years operates on the same shorthand: “camellias bloom in winter.” It’s tidy, it’s memorable, and it’s wrong for at least two-thirds of the camellias you’re likely to plant. The truth is far messier and far more useful — this genus spans a flowering window that stretches … Read more
Helen Pritchard · December 12, 2025
Walk with me to the far side of my shade house, past the potting bench and the stack of nursery flats I keep meaning to sort, and you’ll find a row of camellia stems wrapped in plastic like little science experiments — the current batch of air layers I’m nursing along beside a tray of … Read more
Helen Pritchard · December 2, 2025
Introduction: Why Your Winter Garden Needs the Pink-a-Boo Camellia Scroll back through my phone to late December, and you’ll land on a photo of my side yard: frost-silvered lawn, skeletal hydrangeas, and one shrub absolutely dripping in soft pink flowers. That single image sums up the whole argument for growing this plant. Most of the … Read more
Helen Pritchard · November 27, 2025
A Centuries-Old Japanese Beauty Ritual for Hair That Actually Holds Up Picture hair that goes beyond a quick surface gleam—hair that’s fed from the inside and bounces back from damage instead of just hiding it. Long before modern hair products existed, Japanese women reached for one particular remedy, the same oil Samurai once rubbed into … Read more