Hey guys! I've got a Debutante Camellia I need to plant and two possible location to plant it. I'm a little concerned with both spots and was wondering if anyone had some advice or experience that could help me decide in between the two spots.

The first spot is an eastern exposure up against the house. It gets an hour or so of early morning sun, an hour or so of filtered sun around late morning and then is in shade the rest of the day, which sounds ideal for a Japonica, but I'm concerned with the foundation leaching lime and that I'll have to regularly apply sulfur to lower the PH, since Camellias like acidic soil. This house is 20+ years old.

The second spot is at the edge of the woods, with the edge of the woods facing south south west. the woods open up into the lawn which is surrounded on all sides by trees and large bushes, so its not super open, but open enough( sort of like a little woodland meadow). My concern with this spot is that it will go from getting an hour or so of filtered light and 2 hours of midday sun, and 1 hour of evening sun. during the summer, to pretty much full sun during the winter and that the spot won't be sheltered enough.

I'll try to upload some pictures shortly. Any thoughts?

Edit: I'm in zone 7.

Thanks

Mattieus,
Knowing what zone you are in would probably help you get more and better answers.

Seedfork said:Mattieus,
Knowing what zone you are in would probably help you get more and better answers.

Woops. I'm in zone 7! North Atlanta to be exact.

That should help, I am sorry to say I do not grow any camellias and the main reason is I do not seem to have a good location for them being other plants are using all the good sites. My parents used to have several camellia plants in their yard and I always loved seeing them loaded with blooms.

to NGA and the SE Gardening Forum, Mattieus. We'll try to help you as much as we can. We do have an expert on site, but he's not on this forum much. He is @TheCitrusGuy and a special member of the Camellia Society. I've tagged him, so hopefully he'll respond sometime soon.

In the meantime, I will try to help. I do grow a couple of Camellia Japonica in zone 8a SC, and can tell you that they are not difficult to please. Both of mine are in my front border and one of them is between the house and sidewalk. That one gets the morning sun and some late afternoon sun and still does well. Too well, in fact. I need to learn how to thin the plants. But that's a project for another time. I've only rarely needed to add sulphur to combat the leaching from the foundation. Either location should be fine for you, but you'll probably get more blooms in the sunnier location.

Did you ever pick a spot and is it seeming to be working out?