Camellia Maintenance

Camellias are most vulnerable to pest and disease problems when under stressed situations. Plants that are under-watered, under-fertilized or are in soil with improper pH levels suffer from common infestations.

Late winter is also the time for fertilization:

• Take a soil sample, which will tell you exactly what type and how much fertilizer to apply.
  
• Mark a fertilization zone under the camellia. Draw a circle around the camellia midway between the trunk and the drip line of the plant. Measuring the same midway distance out from the drip line of the plant, draw another circle around the plant. (This means that if a shrub measures four feet from trunk to dripline, you'd have a circle about two feet out from the trunk, and another circle two feet out from the drip line.) This area between the circles is the fertilization zone, where most of the plant's roots are.
  
• Apply fertilizer following label directions.
  
• Work fertilizer into soil with rake or fingers.
  
• Cover the fertilized soil with mulch.
  
• Water thoroughly.

Another insider trick to produce earlier, larger blooms is to apply gibberellic acid. Bowden mixes the powdered form of this acid with water to create a solution. He removes the vegetative bud from the stem to create a little cup on the end of the stem. He then applies a single drop of the acid into the cup. The acid will help produce blooms that are half again as large as the last flower.