Feeding of azaleas and camellias
As spring moves forward it becomes time to fertilize both camellias and azaleas. Generally it's recommended that we wait until they get through blooming. I don't feel that means they have to be completely through. The problem is you don't want to stimulate new growth on azaleas or camellias before they bloom. You can have the new growth obscure the flowers.
Keeping in mind the reason you don't want to fertilize too early, you don't have to wait until ALL the flowers are over. Just wait until the fertilizer won't start new growth before the flowers come out. An acid type of fertilizer with extra sulpher and Iron is indicated in our area. Masters Camellia Azalea and Gardenia food is a high phosphorus moderate nitrogen fertilizer with 2.5% iron. This should be used 3 to 4 times starting about now on a monthly schedule. Remember that the amount of fertilizer you use depends on the size of the plant. You don’t feed a Great Dane the same as a Fox Terrier. A five foot camellia needs about 3 cups each fertilizing. So if you have established plants you easily can use 20 pounds in a season.
In the late summer and fall use Master Bloom. This gives the plant even more phosphoric acid for bud development. This can be done starting in September and done September, October and November.
In our climate they both often need extra iron. We are recommending Masters Iron Plus. It contains forty % iron with zinc magnesium and manganese and sulphur together with Humic Acid. In addition to the extremely high amount of iron it does not stain concrete. We are getting extremely good results in our trials here at the nursery.
In addition to fertilizing be sure to get reid of the old flower petals. This applies for both Camellias and azaleas. You can have diseases go from one year to the next inb the old petals.
One of the common problems we see with camellias is over watering. Check the soil for moisture if your camellias don’t do as well as they should. Camellias prefer to be allowed to get just barely moist before watering. The most common problem we have at the nursery is over watering. Generally in containers we water no more than twice a week even in the heat of the summer.
