Camellia – Buds Opening And Falling Off

Q: My camellia was absolutely covered in buds but now that they’re starting to open they are falling off. By the time they finish I will be able to shovel all of them off the ground without any of them opening all the way.

A: A few years ago a gardener reported that his camellias had the same problem. He solved it by watching for camellias that seemed overloaded and twisting off half of them before bloom time. My guess is that your camellia simply doesn’t have enough energy to support all of the buds at once. If you still have buds on the plant, remove half of them and see what happens.