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The Japanese camellia is an evergreen shrub from the woodlands of China, Korea and Japan, grown for its glossy, dark green leaves and its large flowers in late winter and spring, when little else is in bloom. The flowers are white, pink or red, 6-10cm across, and range from single with a boss of yellow stamens to fully double like a formal rose. It is a relative of the tea plant and, like it, needs acid soil. In the right spot, sheltered and lightly shaded, it is long-lived and needs little attention, and it grows well in a large pot.
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As a precaution, keep it out of reach of children and pets.
Water it in late summer, not just in spring. Next year's flower buds form between midsummer and early autumn, and a plant that dries out then drops its buds months later, in winter, just before they should open. This is the commonest reason a healthy camellia does not flower, above all in a pot.
Usually the plant was too dry the previous summer, when the buds were forming. Sudden hard frost, waterlogging and moving a pot in bud can also cause it. Water thoroughly in dry spells from midsummer to autumn, with rainwater if you can.
Yellow leaves with green veins mean the soil or water is too alkaline, so the plant cannot take up iron. Use ericaceous compost in pots, water with rainwater and apply a feed for acid-loving plants in spring. A few old leaves yellowing and dropping in spring is normal.
In partial shade, sheltered from cold, drying winds, in moist, acid soil. Avoid a spot that catches early morning sun: frozen buds and flowers that thaw quickly in sun turn brown.
Frost damage followed by a fast thaw, or camellia petal blight, a fungus that turns the petals brown from the centre and makes the whole flower fall. Pick up and bin all fallen flowers if you suspect blight.
Straight after flowering, in spring, before the new growth has hardened. It needs little: shorten straggly shoots and remove dead wood. An overgrown plant can be cut back hard in stages, over two or three years.
Yes. Use a pot at least 40cm wide with ericaceous compost, stand it in light shade, water with rainwater and never let it dry out in summer. In hard frost, wrap the pot, since the roots are less hardy than the top.
Sooty mould, growing on the sticky honeydew dropped by scale insects or aphids feeding on the undersides of the leaves above. Wipe the leaves clean and deal with the insects.
