Garden Guide: How to grow beautiful Camellia flowers in containers!
There are a few camellia varieties that can survive our winters, but if you want to try them all or are short on space, they do great as container plants too!
If you are looking for year-round greenery and incredible blooms during the cooler months of the year, there is no better plant than camellia. These subtropical plants used to be hard to find in our area, but now they're more popular than ever because of our warmer winters and new, cold-hardy varieties. The shrubs are beloved for their glossy leaves that stay green all year long, and their incredibly unique blooming requirements. Most flowering plants need a sunny spot and bloom in warmer weather, but not camellias! These bright blooms open up in cool weather and grow best in a shady part of the garden.
READ MORE: Cold Hardy Camellias that Survive our Winter Weather
There are more than 20,000 recognized camellias varieties, each with different flower shapes, sizes, colors, and blooming times - but nearly all of them have a blooming window sometime between October to May. If you’re short on space, or want to “collect them all” and grow many types of camellia, you are in luck! Their slow growth habit makes them perfect for containers.
How to grow camellia in containers
Give them some cooler weather
Camellia flower buds develop in late summer and early autumn. They're triggered by cooler & shorter days. When the buds develop they can be brought inside, but would do best in a cool garage that stays above freezing. If you keep them in the house all year long, make sure they're in a room that's cool, bright, and away from heaters.
Don't give them too much cold!
Camellia plants hold their flower buds through the winter, and are prone to cold damage. Typically, unopened camellia buds are damaged when temperatures drop near 10F, Cold tolerant varieties can handle brief dips to 0F before flower bud damage occurs. However, if you keep your camellia in a container, they'll be exposed to more cold than in the ground. It's best to bring them inside or into an unheated garage
Prune in spring, right after the blooms fade.
Camellia buds send new growth in late spring & that'll be where the flower buds develop. If the plants are pruned in the summer or autumn, next year's flower buds will be gone! It's best to prune these plants right after blooming & can be pruned back to 2/3 it's previous size. They can be pruned every year.
Need more inspiration?
Visit the Camellia house at Planting Fields in Oyster Bay, NY! The Camellia house is open 6 days a week (closed on Tuesday). It's the largest collection of camellias in the region and some specimen are more than 100 years old.
