Camellias

Where to plant one

Morning sun and afternoon shade is the ideal. High shade under tall pines is the classic Southern spot and the reason camellias look so at home here.

Avoid two places in particular: hot full afternoon sun on a west wall, which scorches the leaves and shortens the flowers, and deep dark shade, where the plant lives but barely blooms.

An east-facing side of a house is very often exactly right.

Soil

Acidic, rich in organic matter, and above all well drained. Work compost or pine bark fines into a wide area rather than digging one deep rich hole — a hole full of soft soil in heavy clay becomes a bucket that holds water around the roots.

Mulch with pine straw or pine bark, two to three inches, kept back off the trunk.

Watering

Regularly through the first two years, and then through dry spells for good. They are not drought plants.

Pay attention to late summer in particular. The flower buds for winter are being set in August and September, and a camellia that goes dry then will drop those buds unopened months later — which people almost always blame on the cold.

Pruning

Right after it finishes flowering, and only as much as you need. Take out crossing branches, thin the interior a little so air moves through, and shorten anything out of bounds.

Leave it later than spring and you are cutting off next winter’s flowers.

Seasonal interest beyond the bloom

This is the part that gets undersold. Even with no flowers on it, a camellia is a dense glossy evergreen that screens a view, anchors a corner, and looks deliberate in January.

Plant one where the structure matters as much as the flower, and the six weeks of bloom become a bonus rather than the whole reason.