Red Camellia

We live in Lincoln, Northern California. Our builder lanscaped our front yard - they planted three red Camellia's in the entryway - They are in partial shade - but in the summer do get a jolt of really hot afternoon sun. They were planted in May of 2004 - didn't bloom that year - so we hoped to see bloom in the Spring of this year - however, here it is September and there has been no bloom and no buds. Is there something I could feed them that would promote flowering? I've been told that some red Camellia's bloom in the fall???? The Tag on the bushes don't give me any discription of exactly what type Camelia they are, except "red".


Thanks for any advise you can give me.

If they're Sasanqua camellias, they'll bloom in the fall and all the way up to Christmas. If you have no buds yet, they're probably just too young to bloom. There is a special ARC (azalea, rhododendron, camellia) food you can give them. They also like pine needles near their roots, if you can get hold of any of those.

My camellias all bloom in the early spring starting in about March. Except for the sasanqua's which bloom in December. They are all very old plants and I inherited them so I don't know what type they are. But camellias bloom very differently depending on the cultivar. Feed them once a month with an acid based foliar spray or at least four times a year with a good acid based food for camellias - as Zuzu said. Don't feed until after bloom time because they are dormant when they are blooming. And if you do any pruning do it right after bloom so they have time to set buds. Be sure to remove all dead flowers often as they can contribute to azalea blight. Hang in there.

Camellia japonica (shade camellia) leaves are larger than Camellia sasanqua (sun camellia) leaves. If the leaves are about 3" long or so and fairly wide they are probably japonicas. If you have a pic of the leaves we could tell you which one they are. Otherwise, take a leaf to a local retail nursery or OSH (or another box store) and show the nursery manager, they will be able to tell you. We won't know which cultivar you have until they actually bloom, but give us a pic when they do and we can ID it for you.