Do you have camellia plants with flower buds that fail to open?
Here are possible causes:
●Stress — drought stress could inhibit buds from opening.
●Too many buds on a plant results in the plant lacking reserves for each bud to open.
●Warm fall weather may inhibit early-blooming varieties from flowering properly.
●Freeze damage — Most camellia japonica cultivars produce flower buds and bloom during the winter. As the flower buds swell, and particularly as they open, flower buds become more susceptible to freeze injury.
Freeze-injured flower buds fail to open.
Also, those plants located in colder areas of the landscape will be more susceptible to cold injury.
Camellia sasanqua cultivars are less likely to experience cold injury to their flower buds because they bloom mostly during fall and early winter, when we are less likely to experience freezing temperatures.
●Specific variety. Thirty-plus years ago, people planted any camellia they could find because there was a more limited selection.
Although camellias have been part of our southern landscapes for many years, they are native to parts of Asia. Over the years, there have been more introductions of cultivars. Some are not well adapted to our colder winters.
You’d be wise to select cultivars known to do well in our area.
Some camellia cultivars are not well adapted to the Gulf Coast and thus won't flower well, even though they may grow well here. This is why some varieties are favored in Seattle, some do better in England and others perform well here.
For more information on camellias, contact the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension Office — 3098 Airport Road, Crestview — or visit http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep002 to access the publication, “Camellias at a Glance.”
Larry Williams is an agent at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension office in Crestview.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Williams: 5 reasons camellias may fail to bloom