How to Grow and Care for Camellia

The camellia is a flowering evergreen shrub with dark, glossy leaves and large, lush blossoms that appear and bloom for several weeks during the fall through early spring period in warmer regions. Where it is reliably hardy (zones 7 to 9), the camellia is a very popular plant that is used in much the same way that northern gardeners use peonies. Similarities between peonies and camellias include lushly petaled blooms and a tendency to outlive their owners.

Camellias can be planted from container-grown nursery plants at almost anytime of year except during the hottest summer months. They are slow-growing but exceptionally long-lived plants.

Camellia Care

Camellias are best planted in rich, moist soil in a partial shade location. If planting multiple camellia shrubs, space them at least five feet apart. They do not like to compete for water and nutrients with trees in close proximity. They should be planted at the same depth they were growing in their nursery container with the top of the crown slightly exposed.

Know the mature size of your camellia, and plan accordingly if planting close to a window or home foundation. You do not need to amend the soil at planting time; instead, rake compost or well-rotted manure into the top few inches of the soil.

In favorable conditions, camellia is an easy-to-care-for plant that requires pruning only to remove dead branches. However, some gardeners might find them susceptible to a variety of pest and insect problems, which are more serious if the plant is neglected or in poor health.

Light

Camellias thrive in partial shade or in locations that receive dappled sunlight for the entire day, such as the understory beneath tall airy trees. Camellia sasanqua cultivars can tolerate more sun than Camellia japonica cultivars.

Soil

Camellias require well-drained soil, and an ideal soil pH for camellias is within the 6.0 to 6.5 range—slightly acidic.

If your garden soil consists of dense clay and doesn't drain well, grow your camellia in a container. Smaller cultivars are more suitable for container growth and require large, wide, heavy containers with adequate drainage holes and filled with rich, moisture-retentive potting soil.

Water

Camellias require consistently moist soil. Dry periods that occur during bud development result in fewer flowers with a lower petal count. Drought-stressed plants can also cause spider mite infestations. Twice-a-week watering for a total of one inch of water per week is a good watering schedule. Apply a three-inch layer of mulch to moderate soil temperatures, retain soil moisture, and stifle weeds.

Temperature and Humidity

Camellias are reliably hardy in USDA hardiness zones 7 to 9, although some, especially the hybrids, are known to be hardy in zone 6. Gardeners in colder climates can increase the chances of their camellias surviving the winter by carefully selecting a permanent planting site in the landscape. A northern-facing location has an advantage over a warmer south-facing location. South-facing locations can cause the plant to break dormancy too early, resulting in the loss of flowers to frost damage. A north-facing site combined with a building, hedge, or fence that acts as a windbreak gives cold-climate gardeners the best rate of success.

Fertilizer

Camellias are best fed with a nitrogen-rich slow-release fertilizer, such as 12-4-8 or 16-4-8 applied in three applications: early spring, late spring, and mid-summer. Avoid feeding after August because the new growth that fertilizer promotes can be damaged by cold temperatures.

The acidity that camellias favor can be provided by a fertilizer designed explicitly for camellias or azaleas.

Types of Camellia

Although camellias are indigenous to Asia, the genus is named for Moravian Jesuit priest Brother Josef Kamel, a botanist, pharmacist, and missionary who classified plants in the Philippines.

The Camellia genus belongs to the Theaceae (tea) plant family and includes well over 100 species. But nearly all garden camellias, of which there are hundreds of different types, are cultivars developed from C. japonica (Japanese camellia) or C. sasanqua (sansaqua camellia). A third common species, C. sinensis, is normally grown for tea production, not as an ornamental plant. Additional species sometimes lend their genetics to hybrids.

Some popular garden varieties include:

• 'April Dawn': Reliably hardy in zone 6, this variety has double white flowers streaked with pink.
• 'Elfin Rose': This cultivar has pale pink double blooms that appear in October and November.
• 'Fragrant Pink': This variety has small pink flower clusters with a sweet fragrance that is especially obvious on warm winter days.
• 'Francis Eugene Phillips': This popular cultivar has highly ornamental fringed foliage and ruffled pink flowers edged in white.
• 'Yuletide': This plant features red single blooms on a compact, four-foot-tall shrub.

Hybrid Camellias

A growing class of camellias include the hybrids, usually designated as Camellia x williamsii. These include cultivars developed from a cross between C. Japonica and C. saluenensis. These are considered some of the most cold-hard camellias, usually reliably hardy to zone 6. Some popular hybrid camellias include:

• 'Anticipation': This hybrid with huge rose-pink flowers blooms from October to May. It is a large shrub, growing to as much as 15 feet tall.
• 'China Clay': This hybrid has four-inch white flowers that bloom from January to March. This large shrub can grow to 15 feet tall.
• 'Les Jury': This hybrid with deep red flowers is a smaller shrub, topping out at about six feet tall. It blooms from January through March.
• 'Elegant Beauty': This eight-foot-tall hybrid has very large rose-pink flowers that bloom from January to March.

Pruning

Pruning should be kept at a minimum with camellias because doing so can ruin the shrub's natural shape. Prune camellias after flowering to keep the interior of the shrubs free of dead and non-blooming branches. Remove any branches that droop on the ground.

Branches that show signs of blight or other fungal diseases should also be pruned and removed.

Propagating Camellias

Camellias can be propagated by seeds, but it can take quite a long time to grow mature plants. It's more common to propagate by layering. Here's how to do it:

1. In summer, bend a long stem down to the ground and make an angled nick in it.
2. Loop the stem into the soil, so the wounded area is buried in the ground, and use a rock or stiff wire to hold it in place in the soil.
3. Over the course of a full growing season, a good network of roots should develop from the wound in the buried stem. At this point, you can clip it away from the parent plant and dig up the offspring to plant it elsewhere.

How to Grow Camellia From Seed

Many garden camellias are hybrids that very rarely come true from collected seeds, though you can try seed propagation as an experiment. Camellia seeds ripen at different times depending on variety and location, but they usually ripen in the early fall. When seeds are mature, the pod begins to crack slightly and seeds are ready to be picked.

If you have seeds, soak the seed in warm water for 12 hours or carefully crack the hard seed coat to aid in germination. Plant in potting soil, peat moss, or a combination of peat moss and sand. Keep the soil damp. Seeds usually germinate in one month if planted immediately after harvesting. Some seeds might not germinate until spring. A better chance of germination occurs when seeds are planted immediately upon ripening.

Potting and Repotting Camellias

Many camellias are large shrubs with deep taproots that don't lend themselves to container culture. However, smaller cultivars are sometimes grown as potted plants in large, wide, heavy containers filled with a good moisture-retentive potting mix. When transplanting a potted nursery plant into a patio container, sever off the taproot, which will cause the plant to develop a wider, more fibrous root system. Make sure the container has adequate drainage holes because camellias do not tolerate wet feet.

Potted camellias are heavy feeders that will gradually deplete their potting mix, so they should be repotted every three years or so. Prune the roots by an inch or two, then repot the plant into a larger container with additional fresh potting soil.

Overwintering

Camellia is an evergreen shrub that blooms in the winter in the South, where the winters are mild. If you are growing camellia in a container and you live in a cooler climate, protect the soil and root system from freezing. Dry leaves and pine straw are an excellent source of insulation; mound them up and around the container, fully covering the container and soil. If you live in a colder climate, such as zone 7 or lower, keep the pot covered until spring. If you expect extreme cold or a prolonged cold snap, protect the plant by building a burlap or canvas fence around the container. Fill the space with leaves. 

Common Pests & Plant Diseases

Weak shrubs are often susceptible to attack by pests and diseases. Aphids, thrips, mealybugs, scale, and mites can be common and are best treated with a horticultural oil such as neem oil.

Fungal diseases are also common with camellia and can include various leaf spots, black mold, flower blight, canker, anthracnose, and root rot. A very common disease is petal blight, which causes the flowers to shrivel as they are just opening. While an early application of fungicide can sometimes forestall problems, when fungal diseases do appear, affected plant parts need to be cut away to prevent the spread of disease.

How to Get Camellia to Bloom

The flowering period for camellias differs depending on the cultivar, but most bloom for several weeks sometime in the period from fall to mid-spring. These plants are prized for their blossoms and long bloom period, so it is a great disappointment when they don't bloom as expected. Failure to bloom is usually traced to one of these causes:

• Improper pruning: Pruning too late in the season might remove the flower buds that provide the winter/spring blossoms. If you prune these plants at all, it should be done immediately after the flowers fade, which allows time for new wood to form that provides the next season's blossoms.
• Cold damage to flower buds: An unseasonable frost that occurs as flower buds form can kill the buds and eliminate or reduce flowering for that season. The plant will usually recover nicely and return to its standard bloom pattern next season.
• Lack of nutrients: Poor soil does not promote good flowering until the plants are adequately fed with fertilizer, usually three feedings per growing season.
• Too much fertilizer: Excessive feeding can cause camellias to focus on green growth at the expense of flowers. If soil is already quite rich and heavy in organic material, too much additional fertilizer can actually cause reduced flowering.
• Soil not acidic enough: Camellias are acid-loving plants, and they might refuse to flower if grown in alkaline soil. Amending the soil to acidify it or feeding the plant with an acidifying fertilizer might be necessary if the soil is too alkaline.
• Too much shade: Camellias prefer partial shade, but they might be shy about flowering if grown in dense shade.
• Drought stress: Camellias like consistently moist soil. If threatened by dry conditions, they might conserve energy by withholding flowers.

Common Problems With Camellia

Camellias that are kept properly watered and fed and are positioned in favorable soil and shady conditions are usually fairly trouble-free. However, in addition to the pest and disease issues mentioned above, you might see these cultural symptoms:

Yellow Leaves With Green Veins

This symptom is a sign of chlorosis, a condition caused by soil that is too alkaline, which prevents the plant from taking up the nutrients it needs from the soil. You might be able to decrease soil pH (make it more acidic) by amending with agricultural sulfur or by feeding the plant with an acidifying fertilizer formulated for azaleas and camellias.

Leaves Turn Yellow, Plant Wilts

This is a classic symptom of root rot, which can kill a plant quickly or over several years. There is no cure for fungal root rot other than to remove the plant to prevent the disease from spreading. When purchasing new shrubs, inspect them carefully to make sure they are healthy. Root rot is most common in dense, poorly draining soils, so before replanting it's a good idea to amend the soil with plenty of organic matter to improve its porosity.

Burned Leaf Edges

This is usually a sign of chemical burn caused by overfertilizing. Omit the next feeding and see if the symptoms resolve.