Practical camellia care from two decades in the garden
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 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…
Helen Pritchard · January 31, 2026
After twenty-plus years of growing camellias in my Zone 7b garden, I thought I had my fertilizing routine figured out. Then came back-to-back seasons of yellowing leaves, sparse blooms, and one particularly sulky Camellia japonica Nuccio’s Gem’ that refused to…
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 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