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May 20, 2023

Catch camellia show; learn 4 ways to propagate these bloomers

There are four ways to propagate camellias at your home and you may get

There are four ways to propagate camellias at your home and you may get different results from each. You can grow camellias from an air layer, a graft, a cutting, and a seed.

I have attempted all four methods and had success with all four. You may prefer different methods depending on how quickly you want a mature plant, but all of the methods require one or more years until you have a plant large enough to bloom.

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For inspiration, check out the Tallahassee Camellia Society annual show this weekend from 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, and 1-4 p.m. Sunday.

Air layering, grafting, and starting a cutting will all result in a plant that is identical to the mother plant. So, if you have an heirloom camellia and you want to start a few new ones to pass on to your friends or family, then you want to try one of these three methods.

In contrast, if you start a plant from a seed, you do not know what you will get. Just as children are a combination of their mother's and father's features so are seedlings from camellias. It may have features like the mother plant but could look totally different. That does not mean that they will be bad camellias, as it is through seedlings that we get new varieties. However, not all seedlings will be something better, sometimes they are worse. What we call less desirable camellia seedling is "rootstock," more on that later.

Seeds will begin maturing on camellias in late August through October. Collect the seeds and plant them then. Lots of propagators have a designated area in the ground where they cultivate and plant their camellia seeds. You can plant them a few inches apart at this point because you just want to see if they will germinate. I prefer to put them in a plastic window box style planter and cover them with a loose wire screen. I have a lot of squirrels in my yard and if I do not cover my seedling planters the squirrels will dig them up and plant acorns.

The seeds have what we call an "eye," which is a small circle on the seeds. Most propagators in the Tallahassee Camellia Society will plant their seedlings with the "eye" to one side and not facing up or down. Both the roots and the stem will emerge from the "eye" so by placing it on its side it can go up or down and not have to travel around the seed. Plant the seeds shallow, only an inch underground.

This mirrors what nature does when the seeds fall from the trees. My experience is that while I plant my seeds in October, I will not see the seedling emerge until mid to late January. After they emerge, I watch them until they reach three to four inches tall and then I carefully dig them up and plant them in one-gallon pots. Out of 40 seeds I planted last year, I had 30 plants emerge, and after I transplanted them into pots 20 lived for one year. Those plants are around eight to nine inches tall now.

Serious camellia growers will save the seeds from their favorite camellias and propagate them. If the seeds produce lovely flowers that are unique, the grower can attempt to name and register them as new varieties. If you attend the Tallahassee Camellia Show (or any camellia show) you will see a table set aside for seedlings that have been grown locally where the grower is showing them to determine if they are unique enough to register. Look for that table.

As a side note, the members of the Tallahassee Camellia Society register more new camellias annually than anywhere else in the country.

Starting in February, propagators will begin taking cuttings of their favorite plants, or scions as they are called, and grafting them onto camellia rootstock. Rootstock is any camellia that just does not please you. For local propagators they will take vigorous seedlings that have boring flowers and use that for rootstock. The root stock is usually an inch thick so the seedling will have to be a couple of years old.

The short version of this process involves cutting the rootstock plant straight across to expose the main stem and then placing a cut downward to create a half inch wedge on the top of the rootstock. Then you take a short cutting (scion) from the plant you want to propagate, cut a half inch "V" at the bottom of the cutting, and insert that into the rootstock wedge to one side.

The next steps involve covering the plants and protecting them from late frost, deer, and disease. Keep them watered and the rootstock should grow up and around the new cutting (scion) sealing the wound. If successful, this will seal by late May to early June.

In early May, after all the flowers are gone and the new growth is beginning on the camellias, you can air layer to create a new camellia. In addition to planting seeds, this is my preferred method of propagation, but it is not fool proof. Out of 20 air layers I do each year, two or three will not take, meaning they will not create roots, and even amongst those that do create roots a couple will still fail to thrive and I will lose them.

However, of the ones that survive, which is more than half, it produces the largest plants, and they will bloom the following year. This is a long process as you will create the air layer in May and not remove it from the mother plant until November.

Air layering should be done on large mature trees because the process involves wounding a limb to stimulate root growth and then you have to cut off that limb. The ideal sized limb to air layer is between half an inch to an inch. A small plant and a small limb will not be able to support an air layer.

In order to do the least amount of visual damage to my camellias, I will identify those branches that could be removed and not negatively impact the appearance of the plant. That is usually a low branch that might be touching the ground, one that is sticking out into a walkway, or if the camellia is thick, one that crosses in the center and, if removed, would allow more air to circulate within. In each case the camellia is left better off after the limb is removed.

The short version of this process is that you must carefully cut away approximately an inch of the outer bark on the limb of a camellia all the way around the limb and leave the bright green layer below it. Then wrap that one-inch wound with sphagnum moss that has been soaked in water and sprinkled with a rooting hormone. Hold it in place with aluminum foil and crimp the ends to secure it around the limb.

Afterwards, leave it alone until November when you will open the foil and determine if you have roots. If you have roots, cut it off and plant the end with the roots into a pot with soil. Place the roots at the top even with the soil line. If there are any buds on the limb you have air layered remove them. I know this is not what you want to do, however, the plant can either feed the flowers or it can grow roots not both and, with an air layer, you really want it to grow roots. Keep it in the pot for a year and next fall plant it outside. It should bloom for you that first year.

In early July, after the camellias have had the opportunity to put on three to four inches of new growth you can take cuttings. Be care where you take the cuttings from because you do not want to take the cuttings from the top of the plant and stunt its growth. Again, look for bottom limbs or side limbs that are growing in a direction you do not want the plant to go.

The short version of this process is you cut off the bright green new growth and cut a half inch "V" at the bottom. Dip that into rooting hormone and place in a rooting tray or you can place several two to three inches apart in a larger pot. Keep them watered and protected through the rest of the summer and fall. Up pot them in the early spring.

Out of 20 cuttings I took this past July, three died within five weeks and the others have new growth.

If you want more information on propagating camellias you can contact the Tallahassee Camellia Society or go to the UF/IFAS Landscape Plant Propagation Information index for Camellia japonica. You can also ask any camellia questions of the members of the Tallahassee Camellia Society attending the Annual Camellia Show this weekend.

Brenda Buchan is a Master Gardener Volunteer with UF/IFAS Extension Leon County, an Equal Opportunity Institution. For gardening questions, email the extension office at [email protected].

What: The Tallahassee Camellia Society will hold its annual show. Because of the deep cold experienced in late December the show will not be judged, instead it will be an exhibit. The exhibit is free, and the public is welcome to bring your camellias by Saturday morning to include in the exhibit.

When: 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14 and 1-4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Doyle Connor Building, in the auditorium, located on Conner Blvd.