Camellia won't flower

Hi all. Bought a camellia a few years ago and planted in a pot. Looked beautiful when i bought it but has never flowered again. Plant looks healthy enough, just never flowers. Does anyone have any advice? Much appreciated, Ian

 

Camellias, like rhododendrons and azaleas, form their flower buds in the previous summer. If they get too dry over that period the flower buds either don't form or abort. So regular watering over the summer is needed.

 

That's good to know. One or two of my Rhododendrons aren't going to flower this year.

 

Also a good reason not to grow in pots, planted out they do much better.

 

Thanks everyone. Some good advice there, cheers.

 

As long as the ground is right

 

Yeah, but, I have a Rhodo and a couple of Camellias growing in the ground on my neutral soil.
They have been there years and get a dose of sequestrene should they start to look yellow.

Sure beats all that fiddling around watering and feeding in summer.

 

Hiya Pete
Unfortunately, my ground is around 8.0, so mine have no choice but to be in pots, some of which are plunged in the ground. I've since discovered that they are quite shallow rooted, so whilst the pots are plenty big enough in terms of volume, they're now starting to suffer.

 

Well I guess if you live in a really chalky area its a no go, but I really feel the ericacious thing is slightly overdone regarding camelias in particular.

 

Whereabouts do you have the pot? Some Camellias won't flower well if they are in too shady a spot.

 

I've always had this problem with my camelia which is in a pot as our soil is alkaline (I've never actually tested it, I'm just assuming this as our soil is very heavy clay and our water is mountain spring water which has so much lime in it you can feel it on the inside of a glass of water if left overnight). I've always given it gallons of water in summer and autumn and plenty of ericacious feed, kept it out of the early morning sun, transplanted it etc. etc. and it always drops its buds, and doesn't produce that many - I've had one open this year out of about 6 or 7. So, I'm finally running out of patience. It's going in the ground and it can do what it wants!

 

On an alkaline soil you could always apply aluminuim sulphate