Every area and every camellia gardener has ones own favorite potting mix. July is not the best time to change the pot or to modify your potting mix. Keep your present plant at a nice location under filtered sunlight. Well diluted fish emulsion and some chelated iron mix solution can be applied in September. Your camellia plant should be very happy in properly fed and properly moisted condition. Then go to locate an expeienced camellia gardener from your local Camellia Society. They should be very happy to give you the tips. Some gardeners wash off all the old soil and add his own potting mix. Some only washed off 60 to70% of old mix pending the condition of old potting soil.. Usually It is being done in late dormant stage. Commonly very small fir bark is added to the mix to improve air space structure. Forest humus, good compose( not cattle waste nor redwood compose), aged ground peat, good commercial potting mix----etc all can be part of the mix. If you intend to grow your camellia in the pot, new and better potting mix is must.

In late March or Early April, my seedlings are 5 to 7 inches tall. I select the desired seedling and plant it closely to the trunk of understock. Immediately approach graft is done. I keep the plant in my green house or sheltered area without direct sunlight. I may loosely cover the grafted plant with a poly bag. That is all to it. After two months, keep the grafted plant under right amount of sunlight with proper fertilizer solution. I never cut the seedling so I know it has my signiture seedling plant.

Hello, Michelle. I will add a few other things to what the others said... On newly planted small camellia shrubs, I set my drip irrigation to run for one hour, which provides 1 gallon of water. In your case, try to determine how much time is needed for the soaker hose to release 1 gallon of water and let it run for that amount of time when you water. In order not to water too much or too little, check the soil daily: insert a finger to a depth of 3-4 inches between the main trunk and the drip line; when the soil feels almost dry, water again. After about two weeks of doing this, you will notice that you are watering on a certain frequency, such as every two/three/four/etc days. Then set the soaker hose to water on that frequency and make it run as long as needed to deliver 1 gallon of water. Re-check moisture levels in this way any time that the temperatures change by 10-15 degrees and stay there. When the plant goes dormant in the Fall, you can reduce watering further (say once a week or once every two weeks) but not all the way down to zero. Water during dry winters as long as your soil does not freeze. To conserve water and to water less often, keep the plants well mulched with 3 or 4 inches of acidic mulch; hardwood mulch is fine if no acidic mulch is available at the nurseries. Newly purchased plants probably do not need fertilizing as the nursery already added fertilizer into their pots/containers. These look like little colored BB-gun shells. So instead of trying to feed them now, just water them well when you plant them. As forestall said, planting them about 1" above the surrounding soil is fine. Contrary to what commercial fertilizer companies would want you to do, camellias should be fertilized sparingly as they are not hungry feeders like roses. You can begin 3-4 fertilizer applications after your last average late frost in Spring all the way until when the flower buds begin to swell; basically this translates to: from March/April through early September. The American Camellia Society recommends using some cottonseed meal, although a general purpose slow release NPK Ratio 10-10-10 fertilizer will also work well. Apply a dusting of the fertilizer and then water. Do not try to mix the fertilizer with the soil as camellia roots are fibrous and are located near the topsoil. If your soil is not naturally acidic then you will also need to amend the soil now and then . Your goal should be to keep the soil's pH Level acidic or close to neutral. Your nearby/local nurseries should be able to tell you if the soil where you live is acidic or alkaline. pH kits are also available at the big stores to sample on your own; they give approximate readings and can be used often. Soil tests will give you more accurate results but these should only be done every 3-5 years. Camellias grow best in acidic soil but will tolerate some alkalinity. However, if the alkalinity becomes too high then the shrubs begin to show signs of iron chlorosis, a condition where the leaves turn light green while the leaf veins stay dark green. Liquid acidifying products with chelated compounds -available in most nurseries- can be applied to correct iron chlorosis. You can also add Soil Sulphur, Espoma's Garden Sulphur or Green Light Iron & Soil Acidifier (those are just a few examples). Those last three products have no nitrogen (NPK Ratio of 0-0-0) which is useful when you need to apply them during the winter. Should you need to use these, apply them in Spring when you fertilize; then observe if more is needed later in the year. Does this help, Michelle? Luis

Hi Connie, I am not familiar with Buttons n Bows. A new to me Camellia that I highly recommend to my rose loving friend is Winter's Rose. It is a dwarf camellia with lovely light pink flowers. It has been covered with flowers for the last few weeks. Winter Snowman is one that grows very upright for me. It blooms for about six weeks in November and December. I visited Camellia Forest in NC for their annual open house last year and picked up several that are doing well. They have a large selection of cold hardy plants. One that they highly recommended for cold hardiness is Gov. Mouton. I will have to check out Little Five Azalea Farm. There is also a couple who sell camellias at the Gordon Road Farmer's Market on Rt 3. Kathy Here is a link that might be useful: Winter's rose