Camellia mistake

Well I sort of agree but with the proviso that it really depends on just how acidic or Alkali the soil is for starters.
I moved to my current address 17 years ago and brought with me 3 large specimens of Species Rhododendron and various other acid loving plants and planted them here. I then continued to add to my collection of plants, most being acid "loving" or more accurately alkali hating.
All do fine and I never did a soil test until a professional gardener friend offered to do a test for me with his proper kit, not those near useless things you buy in garden centres.
We took 8 samples from around the garden and dried all the samples before testing. (According to friend the tests are not accurate/waste of time unless the soil is bone dry!) Well you have probably guessed that the test recorded that my soil, much to my enormous surprise is not that acidic at all!!!!!!!! Don't tell my plants Luckily I think the plants have coped fine because I always plant the like of Rhododendron with copious amounts of peat/ leaf mould and well rotted manure so that will have helped the situation. I was taught to spend x on a plant and x times 2 on good planting medium if you didn't already have your own.
I would always suggest to new gardeners that they take a walk round their area and see what others are growing well rather than getting involved with testing soils etc.
A few of my many alkali hating plants

 

I envy you growing those plants Silu

Ironically, the bulk of inland Cornwall is acidic ...possibly similar to parts of Scotland...but here on the coast it is neutral

I once visited a garden, on acid soil, where the owner mulched with copious amounts of mushroom compost Needless to say a lot of plants perished