| Roy fortunately this is rare, but occasionally a camellia plant will do this. I have about 200 camellias, but only one of them -- a large old 'Candidissima' -- invariably produces hundreds of buds and not a single flower. I have cussed it many times. Not necessarily a symptom of disease (the plant may be otherwise healthy) but chronic bud drop has a long list of potential causes -- too much/little water, too much/little sunlight, too much/little heat in summer (or cold in winter) etc. If anyone could figure it out they would win a medal in the camellia world. My own opinion is that there are some varieties which are not suited for particular climates and thus do not open properly (or at all). For instance, some varieties need more cold weather to open. You see that in Hawaii for instance, and in south Florida, where the weather is too mild to permit many formal doubles to open but other bloom forms open fine. (And they can grow Reticulatas outside.) Many people don't realize that camellias do need a certain amount of cold weather, and we have had very mild winters lately -- it barely reached freezing once this year. In the case of my 'Candidissima' it is about a 50 year old plant that is too large to move, but it is a rare old variety, so I plan to make some airlayers to see if I can get it to bloom in other places on the property. And after taking the airlayers off, I plan to cut it down and graft something else more dependable on the large stump. That is one solution to bud drop! If your plant is small enough, I would suggest next autumn digging it up and moving it to another location to see if you can get it to bloom. I have had some success with that. Otherwise graft something else on it that will bloom more dependably in your climate. And meanwhile try some other varieties that won't disappoint. This is probably more information that you wanted, but I just so happened to have seen that dadgum old 'Candidissima' again today and threatened it with a chainsaw. But I doubt it was listening. Good luck! Forrest |
