how come my camellia won't grow?

Question

stay's the same size all the time
the flower buds disappeared
do you put it in shade or sun or partial shade

Answer 1

Is the type of Camellia cultivar you have, not a miniature variety ? if not prune it after flowering. Camellia's like sunny positions, but not hot western sun, they can tolerate partial shade areas, If the camellia is a light flowering variety avoid the morning sun. Camellias flower mainly from mid winter to early spring. If still a problem with flowering you could have a potassium deficiency or that there is no bees around your area to polinate the flowers due to over spraying of herbicides.

Answer 2

Camellias do not grow very fast, so maybe it is growing, but not noticeably to you. Take yearly photographs! Some camellias that one buys in pots are intended to be dwarf and never do grow larger than a certain size.

They like to be a little pot bound, if you've got them in a pot, and tend to have delicate little rooties that dislike being disturbed, so I don't like the advice above. If you are often clonking the pot, this may make it drop your buds and grow slowly, as it's always trying to grow it's roots back.

Try moving the cameliia around and pay close attention to see if the leaves blush or burn when you move them to more sun. I wouldn't put them in full sun unless you've got them on a northern exposure. Move them right away if the leaves show damage, because it takes awhile for the damage to show and this can kill the plant. I have no idea what a camellia that has too litle sun looks like.

Bud drop IMO is usually caused by irregular watering. You can suppress some of this by thinning out the buds when they first appear to give the plant less to support and less stress, but mostly you just need to keep it evenly watered. If the buds are literally disappearing, instead of just plopping off, you may have some infestation of something, but I don't know what.

Answer 3

Camelias like full sun to part shade. Fertilize with Epsom salts and Miracle grow. After they bloom they set buds for the next bloom. They prefer to be planted in the ground as opposed to in a pot. If yours is in a pot, look at the bottom, if there are roots coming out of the drain holes that means it wants a larger container. You can propagate cuttings either in a clear container of water or by using rooting hormone and placing the cutting in potting soil. Good luck