As appropriate, the camellia Yuletide is blooming in our garden for The New Year.

It could. That is how I found out that my sprinkler had been turned off (when we had a rainy spell). I just forgot to turn it back on. Sometime during a dry spell in winter, I noticed that a Kanjiro had dry and browned out leaves. Checking the soil, I noticed it was dry and then discovered the sprinkler was off. Oops. The shrub recovered of course.

My Yuletide is usually bloomed out by Christmas, but this is a little early. Is yours in a container or in the ground? Container plants usually bloom sooner than those in the ground. The time of blooming is also climatic, from region to region and even within the region depending on weather conditions (such as the arrival of shorter, cloudier and/or cooler days, and the amount of water it may recently have gotten). These are variations that may make blooms earlier or later in a given year. We are running a little late here on the gulf coast in my estimation, because we had an unusually warm dry autumn so far, and it is still pretty dry. After Hurricane Katrina we had a solid month of very hot dry weather. The sasanquas and early japonicas are just now starting to show a bloom or two. No blooms on Yuletide yet.

I have the same experience with Yuletide. I have two, both planted in 2001. One in more shade, the other in more sun. My shade plant had about 10 flowers last year, a monstrous display! As of a few days ago my sun plant had a single open flower, on the tip of lowest hanging limb. I spotted at least one bud on the shade plant, perhaps it could have others. Despite the paucity of flowers I still really like Yuletide. I like the dark green foliage and the very formal growth. Of course I love the flowers most of all. I have always liked the single flowered Camellias best. I like to see the "beard" of stamens.