Maybe you're overfertilizing it with nitrogen. Try not fertilizing next year.

I have no idea why, but the Camellia that never bloomed in our suburban Philadelphia backyard is blooming beautifully at our South Jersey shore house. It's planted in very sandy soil and we do absolutely nothing to it. It is well protected and gets full sun.

Thanks for your responses. I went ahead and moved my Camellia to a spot that gets more sun. I've read they like shade, but the spot I had it in was really shady, so maybe a little more sun will help. I will also try fertilizing it more with acid enriched fertilizer (I only tried fertilizing it a handful of times in the past several years, Steve NJ, so I don't think I was over fertilizing it...).

Anyway, even if it doesn't bloom it looks better where it is with just it's green foliage.

I will report back if things start changing for the better, or worse!

Thanks again.

If it grew from a seed instead of a cutting it can take up to seven years before it will start flowering, even part-way reliably. Some are precocious but others...

There were about five seedlings around a much larger plant in our garden. We gave one to a friend and she complained that it hadn't flowered after three years from being transplanted. A larger one, about three foot tall, finally flowered this year, about seven years from seed. A further two were about eighteen inches high and had healthy buds until I dug them out for moving elsewhere. Very variable.

As your one is named I would expect it to flower sooner - and the change of site may well do that for you.

Some Camellias do like shade but, in our version of zone 9, the japonicas do fine in full sun, even out in pastures. The top leaves get sunscald but the shrubs flower reliably, provided their roots stay cool and fed. Protection from hot afternoon sun is appreciated, though.

The short intervals of several years being discussed here are nothing in the life of a shrub that may live for centuries.

You are confused by the fact that it had flowers when purchased, but none since. This is common. Apparently growers bring on premature bloom of small specimens with nursery cultural practices, with the plant reverting to blooming at a normal size after being purchased and given ordinary care. It will probably start budding again within a few years.

Shade is definitely preferable, flowers of camellias exposed to much sun at flowring time are prone to frost injury. I don't think full shade will interfere with flowering significantly, whereas a good frost can spoil much of the bloom for a year. And leaf color is decidedly better with less exposure than more.

The above remarks apply to Camellia japonica, the S. sasanqua does like a warmer, sunnier position. In PNW it does esp. well against a wall, with an overhang to protect the flowers from rain and frost.

Does it set buds and not open them, or it sets no buds?

Do you get good growth on it or is it just "sitting still". If it is sitting still it might be lack of enough sun, or water. Since camellias don't need much food, (it's nice but they bloom without it) I don't think that's it. If you fertilize them heavily at the wrong time, you can cause them to drop their buds. I think a lot of the chemical fertilizers are too strong and should be diluted about half strength but I do know people who use them full strength and their plants are fine.

Some of my camellias hardly set any buds this year (just one or two buds on a plant, what a disapointment) but I don't feel so bad because the folks at Nuccios (originators of Nuccios Gem, Nuccios Pearl, Nuccios Bella Rosa, etc.) also said thay had a lousy bud set this year for no known reason.

Some of my other camellias set a ton of buds, esp. Koto No Kaori, a scented camellia which is already blooming. I also have a Sawadas dream that since I got it 2 years ago has set a bunch of buds and refuses to open a single one of them.

I have a camellia that has lots of buds, but never seems to bloom. I had it in a pot under a Dogwood tree but recently moved it to a sunnier location and put it in the ground. It still has all those buds but they just don't want to open. What am I doing wrong?

keith, it's too early for a lot of camellia buds to open. Be patient. If the buds are there, they will open. Now, if it has buds every year, and they NEVER open, but dry up or fall off, then something is wrong.

I have one camellia in my garden - one of many - that never blooms. The reason is that it is sited underneath a large tree that has a squirrel's nest in it. The squirrels eat every bloom off of that shrub. I have never yet seen a bloom in fifteen years, although the rest of my camellias bloom just fine.