Every spring, I walk my garden and feel that familiar mix of excitement and mild guilt. The camellias are pushing out fresh growth, and I know it’s time to fertilize. For years, I fumbled through this — overfeeding here, forgetting entirely there — until my ‘Debutante’ japonicas started throwing chlorotic yellow leaves and my prized … Read more
I was standing at the RHS Garden Show last spring when a gardener approached my display table with the question I hear at least once a month: “Which camellia should I buy—sasanqua or japonica?” She held two plant labels, clearly torn between them, and I smiled. After twenty years growing over two hundred named camellia … Read more
Three years ago, I redesigned a bed around my beloved Camellia × williamsii ‘Donation’. It had become a lonely specimen, gorgeous in February but surrounded by bare earth and the wrong neighbours. I realised then that camellia companion plants weren’t a luxury—they were the difference between a specimen shrub and a garden that sings for … Read more
I spent fifteen years buying camellias labelled “compact” at garden centres, only to watch them sprawl into six-foot monsters that swallowed my borders. That’s when I learned the hard way: camellia sizing is gloriously confusing, and the tag doesn’t always tell you what you really need to know. If you garden in a small space—or … Read more
I’ll never forget the moment at last year’s winter garden society meeting when someone asked me, “Helen, which camellias smell nice?” The room fell silent. Three dozen camellia enthusiasts looked at me expectantly, and I had to deliver news that surprised almost everyone: most camellias don’t smell at all. Their faces fell. It was as … Read more
Five years ago, I made a bold decision. My beloved 15-year-old ‘Donation’ camellia—a sprawling, generous beauty with crimson blooms and a spread of four feet—was casting too much shade over my new tea garden. She needed to move. I remember standing in front of her, pruning shears in hand, wondering if I was about to … Read more
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
