Garden Blog

Now that I have a bunch of plants, I have been struggling to find a mix that works, has good drainage, and is affordable.  The bagged mixes are rather expensive, and don’t always contain what I want, or rather, they contain stuff I don’t want.

I bought a bark mulch, which when I got it home smelled suspiciously strong. I was able to get ahold of the manufacturer, Grangettos, after the fire situation (they closed for awhile) and they told me it was mostly made out of leftovers from making decorative bark, including cedar and redwood, what they call ‘forest bark products’ and they didn’t recommend it for camellias.

Unfortunately, in the interim, I had gone ahead and potted two camellias including that in the mix.  I planned to repot since I found out about the cedar and redwood this week, but today I noticed  one of the plants dropped an unusual amount of leaves, probably about a dozen.  (it is a good sized plant) So I yanked it out, and rushed right out to the nursery for some very overpriced camellia mix.

For those of you who are wondering why I am repotting at this time of year, I had a couple that I should have done this summer, and didn’t get around to.  I am doing it now since I understand the roots grow during the dormant season and they were getting pot bound.

They had several camellia and/or acid mixes, but the reasonably priced mix had both cottonseed meal and bat guano in it, and no analysis of the nitrogen content.  I’ll have to keep it in mind for spring.  Another’s ingredients included the unspecified ‘forest bark products’ and though it was labeled for camellias, I didn’t think I trusted it.  So I bought the expensive, tiny bag which did not have bat guano or cottonseed meal.  It has fir bark fines, peat moss, sand, earthworm castings and kelp.  Sounds pretty good, it’s just that it cost me 4 bucks to repot a single large plant!

I have been told of Wolfenbargers, and I had planned to make a trip out today, instead of going to the nursery, but they’re closed Sundays.  I probably still will, even though it’ll use the entire afternoon - compared to the amount of time I’ve spent calling around to and driving to the local nurseries it’s not that bad. (In fact, maybe we can get a group together and distribute it at one of the meetings.)

Have you had any luck, or any bad experiences to report with your commercial (or homemade) mixes?  Please share your sources and brand names.

We have two greyhounds, a male and a female.  Last year, they discovered that avocados are good to eat and would run for the backyard whenever they heard one fall.  Then they would eat it, and later puke up the pits on my carpet.  (Only two rooms in the house are carpeted, but puking is almost always done on carpet, go figure.)

Well, the solution to that problem was for DH to erect a fence and gate into the backyard.  This is great for the plants back there, and now my bedding plants will be safe.  However, it does not include the patio where my potted camellias are, and this is a problem.  Grady, our male dog, peed on my 1 gal. ‘Mansize’.  I saw him and immediately hosed it off, but within a week it had dropped all but 3 leaves and all its buds.  I think it may live since the growth buds still are alive but obviously if I want ‘Mansize’ flowers this year, it means a trip to Nuccios.

So I am thinking of different solutions to protect my plants.  Fencing is difficult on a patio.  I could also get some benches that would lift the plants high enough to avoid this hazard.  Or those wire plant stands, which are attractive but they usually only hold 1 plant.

What do you guys do who have both dogs and camellias?  Gardening with dogs is a challenge.  It would be nice to have a dog run, but we just don’t have the space.

When you receive your next Camellia Review look for an error. If you are the first to call or e-mail me with the correct information, you will receive a FREE package of camellia notecards. My new email address is melbelcher ” at ” verizon dot net.

Bobbie

OK, this happened last year too and it’s really frustrating.  I get in the habit of watering too much in the summer.  We hit a heat wave and I water a whole bunch and then get in the habit and can’t stop.  I did this last fall too and of course this year I forgot all about what I did last year.  I’ve been told it is bad for my plants. That they can drown, or get root rot, it can shorten their lives, and I know this … yet I still water too much.

I have no idea why it’s so hard for me to cut back.  But it’s been 5 days since I last watered today - and I checked all my pots and found 5 were quite dry - as opposed to mostly dry, my usual summer standard.   But they did not appear stressed, so I watered them and not the rest.  I am trying to get to once a week.

Like any addict, I need a support group.   So post and tell me about your watering program!  I especially want to know if you water all your plants at the same time or check and water individually.

This week I noticed that one of my camellias has a really good budset. It’s a Snow Chan, which is a large, white peony form japonica. It has 2-3 buds per branch tip. I guess I have to disbud if I want to get the really nice, large flowers for show. As much as I hate to do so, I will be disbudding this weekend. ((Disbudding is removing one or more flower buds to allow the rest of the plant’s energy to go into making a larger bloom on the remaining bud(s)).

This is also the last time I will be feeding my camellias the high nitrogen growth fertilizer they receive every 3-4 weeks (when I remember) from April-August. Right now I am using Master Nursery Acid Plant food 30-10-10. The directions say to use 1 Tbsp per gallon and I reduce that by 5 times. That would mean 1 Tbsp per 5 gallons. That’s a bit awkward because I have a two gallon watering can But the idea is to use it very diluted and I get close to 5x dilution. (BTW, if anyone was wanting to know, a Tbsp is 3 teaspoons. Yay for online conversion calculators) The plant foods that you mix with water or use as liquids only last a few weeks, otherwise I would not consider feeding a growth fertilizer this late in the year.

Anyone already switched to dormant season fertilizing?