Now is the time you should be seeing new growth on your camellias. Starting over a month ago, or @ two months ago, depending where you live, new growth should have began slowly appearing on your camellias.

It should be somewhat obvious for you to now see the light green color of the new growth on the tips of the stems on all of your camellias.  I’ve attached several photos of what new growth looks like, just in case you are new to growing camellias.

A common pest to look out for is Spider Mites. They are very common, and are literally blow in with the wind. They eventually can kill your camellia if you don’t know the signs of what to look out for.  Typically, your camellia will start by not looking well, the leaves may appear lackluster and droopy, and appear with brownish spots, and/or silver looking spots on the leaves.  You must act quickly when you notice this telltale symptom when it first appears!

To ward off and kill Spider Mites, and also other pests that feed off of them, I highly recommend and personally use a product called, “All Season Oil” by Bonide.  It’s organic, and safe to use on your plants, and around your home and pets, just follow the directions in the booklet attached to the back of the bottle.

To start off, you’ll need a quart size or large spray bottle, and @ 4 to 5 Tablespoons of this product added to a gallon of water. Always shake well before using, and spray very liberally, saturating all the leaves on the camellia, starting at the bottom of the base through the top portion.  Repeat spraying again in a week or so.

Thoroughly spray the back of the leaves, coating well, along with the front of the leaves.  Spider mites hide on the back of the leaves, and begin their webs there, building their white, chalk looking webs.  The oil works by smothering the pests, and also kills other pests that like to eat, and can eventually kill camellias.  The pests will also spread to other camellias sitting, or planted nearby, so it’s best to treat all of them together to be sure that they are all protected and safe from being affected.

The spider mites that I have seen are solid green in color, but they can be different colors ranging from brown, red, yellowish, and green, depending on the season.  They are sneaky little things that actually blend in very well on the plant, so it’s easy not notice they are there on your camellia slowly doing their damage.  Therefore, it’s good to look closely at your camellias regularly, and pay attention to the color of the leaves on them. The leaves should normally look shiny, healthy, and glossy, and either be a dark or medium color green, depending on whatever variety or species you have.

I’ve also noticed a total bonus using the ‘All Season Oil’ in that along with killing the pests, there really seems to be something almost miraculous about how quickly this horticulture oil works after spraying them to promote new growth on them!  I honestly don’t know what, or why, it works so well in helping to promote and speed along the appearance of new growth so quickly after spraying, but it does.  So remember, spraying some kind of horticulture oil on your camellias semi-regularly is a must to help keep camellias pest free, healthy and happy.

I was thinking about this, and for me it’s many things:

Number one, they are fairly hardy plants.  As long as you water them, check on them periodically for common pests and diseases ( I will address these issues later in other posts in the future), and occasionally feed them, they will continue to grow and bloom beautiful flowers for you to enjoy every year.

Number two, camellias have varying sizes and shapes. Some get really big, tree like big. Some stay small, shrub like small.  You can shape them with shears anyway you prefer.  I personally like their natural shape, but pruning is always fine to do if needed, just keep in mind that It’s always better to prune after the blooms have died off, and/or if there is a dead branch, limb or leaves on it.

Number three, many camellias, called sasanquas, will start blooming beginning in the early Fall and through the Winter months. I always found this amazing when I first discovered camellias! Flowers blooming happily throughout the morning and day when it is 40 degrees and raining!  Before learning about camellias, I’d  thought all flowers just died, or went into a dead like hibernation state during the Fall and Winter months. Not so. Not with with camellias!  We currently carry several beautiful sasanquas varieties now.  One of personal favorites is called, “Chisato-No-Aki“.

It’s a gorgeous white, and the flower is a medium size peony-formal shape.  One of my other sasanquas favorites that we now carry is called a “Frost Princess“.  It’s a lightish pink color with a yellow stamen in the center, similar to the Chisato-No-Aki.   See my photo below.

Number four, the incredible variety of colors!  With camellias, you get a huge selection of varying shades of reds, pinks, whites, red and white variegated, pink and white variegated, striped colors, yellows, solid colors, some have spots of a different color on the bloom. Some camellias have almost a purplish hue, some white camellias have a pinkish hue. The color wheel of varying shades is amazing!  They are all so very unique.  Just like people. 🙂

Just wanted to let everyone know our website is still under construction.  The good news is that we should have it completely tweaked and finished by hopefully next week.  Thank you for your patience! 

Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.

~ Hans Christian Anderson

All my yellow, ‘Lemon Glow’ japonica camellias are blooming, and look beautiful!

The ‘Lemon Glow’ usually begins blooming beginning around late December to mid-January months, and will continue blooming until the early to mid Spring season.  They are slow growers, meaning they don’t glow quickly, and are relatively small in size.  The flower size is @ 3 to 4 inches across, and they are a double formal shape.

They are all healthy, and cold hardy, and ready to go to new loving homes.  🙂   I will post more photos of all of my camellias soon.

It’s raining, but still beautiful in my backyard which overlooks all of many blooming camellias. There is never a bad day when you are surrounded by camellias!!