Camellias are easiest to root when you take cuttings from late spring to mid-summer, depending on where you live, when the wood is half-ripened. Take a six inch cut, remove the lower leaves, dip in rooting hormone, place in pot, put in shady area, and cover with Mason jar for extra humidity. After 6 weeks or so, remove Mason jar, and leave plant until the following spring, when you can transplant to a larger container. I rooted many cuttings successfully that way during my camellia-growing days in Tidewater Virginia.

I'm a little concerned that your cuttings might be trying to put on spring growth with no roots. Are your cuttings inside your house ... or outside in a coldframe? The best time to take cuttings, I thought, was in July or August when new growth has hardened, they have a lot of stored energy, and they're not real prone to breaking dormant buds. Hopefully someone with more experience will respond.

amberroses is referring to the fact that camellias are starting to develop flower buds now and you may miss the bloomage if you transplant now. Plants that are moved will usually suffer from transplant shock and existing flower buds may be aborted during these stressful times. Depending on the type and variety, camellias can start in Sept-Oct & bloom well into March of next 2010 (or a little after that). The previous owner might be able to give you more accurate blooming times. Your success rate may be better if you do this while the plants are dormant, i.e., when Fall-Winter arrive and not while Summer is going strong. Choose a location that protects them from the hot afternoon summer sun. For example, select a spot that gets shaded at the same time as the current one does or gets shade starting around 11am-12pm. The sasanqua leaves will handle more sun than japonicas leaves do so keep that in mind too. The new location should be mulched with 3-4 of mulch and should have a sprinkler/drip system that can provide as much moisture as the existing location. Here is a link that might be useful: Camellia Information by the A. C. S.

Your grandmother's camellia might be 'Professor Sargeant' -- we'll not talk about the two that used to be here until DH decided to move them. Nevermind. Burying a limb will work IF you cut into the bark and put a pebble in the cut to hold it open. Sometimes. It works better for azaleas. I belong to the 'here, take this and stick it in the ground it will root' school of rooting cuttings as taught by Miss Billie Harvey. This brings up a multitude of questions from the person being told to stick a cutting in the ground: Where in the ground? How deep in the ground? Should it be in the shade? How often to water? How do I know when it has rooted? -- and on and on. Green thumbs are developed by trial and error. For every stem that roots, there are some that do not. Get some cuttings, stick them somewhere and don't let them dry out, but don't agonize over them too much. Type 'root Camellia' into Google or another search engine. Dozens of how-tos will appear. Here's a likely one with lots of tips, from a reliable source. Nell Here is a link that might be useful: Klaus Peper Tells How to Root Camellias