British Columbia: Camellia × sasanqua (vernalis) 'Yuletide" no bloom

Hello I have had a Camellia x sasanqua 'Yuletide' since October 2011, but it has no buds this year so far. In previous years it bloomed about February. Is there something I can do to promote buds next year? It is growing well, and all the leaves are a nice green.

 

Yes: it's actually Camellia x vernalis 'Yuletide'. (Also C. sasanqua is not a hybrid species, is written therefore without an "x"). Anyway I've read that the phenomenon of quite small camellias coming to retail outlets covered in buds and then not blooming again for years afterward on end consumer planting sites is because of commercial production facility fertilization programs. So you might try applying a granular fertilizer product labelled for use on evergreen plants per label directions, seeing if that gets yours back into blooming well.

 

OK will do thanks.

 

Interesting response -

Like a rhododendron food, RonB?

The numbers you suggest are _|_|_?

 

In the past various evergreen trees and shrubs all being given the same product was typical, probably retailers still are selling formulations with such labeling.

 

In the 12 month Gardener (West Coast) book on page 35, it tells you how to make fertilizer. For all fertilizers: 4 parts seed meal (canola or fish). 1 part dolomite lime, 1 part rock phosphate or 1/2 part borne meal, 1/2 park kelp meal. Mix. For rhododendrons and other acid loving plants: leave out the lime. For roses: add 1 part blood meal, 2 parts rock phosphate or bone meal, 1 part sulphate or potash, and 1/2 part magnesium sulphate. You can get all these ingredients at Hunters on Broadway, in Vancouver, or a number of garden stores. I make annual compost and my own fertilizer for decades.

 

Truth be told most local plantings would not need all that stuff. Other than a nitrogen source. And there are actually occasions when acid loving plants growing on local soils benefit from dolomite applications (dolomite is not lime in the sense of something like hydrated lime). Presumably with a need for this having been increased by the advent of significant acidic precipitation here.

Anyway the key point to put into practice is that fertilization should be based on soil sampling and testing. All the more so when routine fertilization going out indefinitely into the future is the approach being considered. With when this is being undertaken monitoring through periodic re testing being part of the plan. Because in addition to applications of nutrient sources that are unneeded being a waste there is a danger of producing a soil toxicity condition through overapplication. With phosphorus applications for instance, which when made to excess have to be corrected by excavation and removal of involved soil. Due to the fact that phosphorus leaches extremely slowly.

And with those excess nutrients that are able to pass through and out of soil areas nearby water sources may often be fouled by them.

 

Camellia Fertilization | American Camellia Society

Is this the same type of plant as named earlier in this thread?

Would one feed around the drip line?

 

Kudos to you for saying this, Ron. Generations of gardeners have been reared believing that artificial fertilization is a necessary component to growing healthy plants but recent science is proving otherwise. It is important that someone as knowledgeable and respected as you on these Forums should say so. The fact that there is a lot of money to be made by those recommending and selling unnecessary chemicals makes it difficult to change many gardeners' beliefs and habits.

For more information on science-based gardening advice, a good place to start is found at: Linda Chalker-Scott | Washington State University

 

Would one feed around the drip line?

Follow product label directions.

 

Thank you and I agree with your comment above re the overuse or liberal use of fertilizers — it ends up on our water systems

Okanagan Lake would likely be good example (it drains south to Columbia River and eventually past Portland PDX and the wide open Pacific Ocean)

 

So my camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide' bloomed in March, for first time. I hadn't fertilized it yet. Climate change.....