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Camellias are propagated from semi-ripe wood: this year's growth taken once it has firmed at the base but is still green and flexible at the tip. That stage arrives in late summer to early autumn, several weeks after the growth flush has finished. Take it too soft and it collapses before it roots; take it fully hardened in winter and it can sit for months doing nothing.
The test is to bend a shoot. Soft wood bends into a loop without complaint. Semi-ripe wood resists, bends part way, then snaps cleanly with a small crack. That snap is what you are looking for, and the base of the shoot should have started to turn brown while the tip is still green.
Take material from a healthy plant that is not under stress, in the early morning while the shoots are full of water, and get it straight into a plastic bag out of the sun. Camellia leaves are thick and hold up better than most, but a shoot that has wilted before you prepare it roots far worse.
Expect this to be slow. Camellia cuttings commonly take two to four months to root, and a plant raised this way takes three to five years to flower. That is normal and not a sign anything is wrong. Take more cuttings than you need, since a strike rate of half is a good result at home.
- Cut a four to six inch shoot Take four to six inches (10 to 15 cm) from the tip of a semi-ripe shoot from the current season's growth. Avoid anything carrying flower buds, which will try to flower instead of rooting.
- Trim just below a leaf joint Recut the base with a clean sharp blade immediately below a node. Roots form at the node, and any stem left dangling below it simply rots in the compost.
- Strip all but the top two or three leaves Remove every leaf that would sit at or below compost level. Buried leaves rot and the rot travels up into the stem. Keep the top two or three, which the cutting needs to make roots.
- Wound the base Slice a shallow sliver of bark, about half an inch (1 cm) long, off one side of the base with the blade. Camellias root noticeably better with this wound, which exposes the tissue that produces roots.
- Dip in hormone and insert Use a rooting hormone at the strength sold for semi-ripe or woody cuttings, tap off the excess, and push the cutting an inch and a half (4 cm) into a gritty, free-draining mix of equal parts acidic potting mix and perlite or sharp sand.
- Cover, shade and give bottom heat Cover with a clear lid or bag held clear of the leaves, and keep at around 68F (20C) in bright shade. Gentle bottom heat from a heated propagator roughly halves the rooting time.
The months after insertion are where cuttings are lost
Most camellia cuttings that fail do so from rot rather than from drying out. The mix should be moist, not wet, and the cover needs lifting for a few minutes every few days to change the air. A propagator that stays sealed and dripping grows fungus faster than roots.
Check for fallen or browning leaves every week and pull them out, along with any cutting that has gone soft at the base. One rotting cutting will take its neighbors with it. Resist the urge to tug at the stems to test for roots, since that breaks the fragile new root initials just as they form.
The sign of success is new growth at the tip, and it is worth waiting for rather than digging around. Once a cutting is clearly growing, harden it off over two or three weeks by opening the cover gradually, then pot it individually into acidic potting mix and keep it frost-free but cool for its first winter.
Young camellias in their first two years want more shelter than mature plants. Keep them out of cold wind and hard frost, in a cold frame or an unheated greenhouse, and pot on one size at a time as the roots fill each pot. They will not flower for several years, and pinching the growing tips in the first two seasons builds a bushy plant that flowers better when it starts.
| Stage | Roughly how long | What you should see |
|---|---|---|
| Insertion to first roots | Two to four months | Leaves stay green and firm, no new growth yet |
| Rooted to potted up | A few weeks after rooting | New shoot growth at the tip |
| First winter | One season | Slow or no growth, frost-free storage |
| Potted plant to garden size | Two to three years | Steady growth, potting up each year |
| Planting out to first flowers | Three to five years total | Buds forming in early summer |
Layering is slower and nearly foolproof
If the shrub has a branch low enough to bend down to the ground, layering will give you a new plant with almost no skill and no equipment. The branch stays attached to the parent and is fed by it the whole time it is making roots, which is why the failure rate is so much lower than with cuttings.
Choose a flexible one or two year old branch that reaches the soil comfortably. Loosen the ground where it will touch and work in some acidic potting mix and grit. Nick the underside of the branch with a shallow cut where it meets the soil, dust the cut with rooting hormone, then peg it down firmly with a wire staple or a stone and bury that section under two or three inches (5 to 8 cm) of soil, leaving the tip of the branch above ground.
Keep the buried section moist through the summer and leave it alone. Camellia layers take twelve to eighteen months to root well enough to separate. When you can see new growth on the tip and a gentle tug meets resistance, sever the branch from the parent on the parent's side of the roots, leave it in place for another few weeks to adjust, then lift and move it.
Air layering, wrapping a wound higher up a branch in damp moss and plastic, works on camellias too and is the option when nothing reaches the ground. It needs more attention to moisture but takes about the same time.
Layer in spring, just after flowering, so the branch has the whole growing season to start rooting before winter. A layer pegged down in autumn does nothing until the following spring and just risks being forgotten and mown over.
Seed gives you something different, and that is the point
Camellias set seed in woody capsules that ripen in autumn and split to release large round seeds. These germinate readily if sown fresh, and that is the catch worth understanding: a camellia grown from seed will not match its parent. Flower color, form and habit all vary, sometimes dramatically. If you want the same plant, take cuttings or layer.
Seed is worth sowing for its own sake, though. Sow as soon as the capsules split, since the seeds lose viability quickly once dry, soak them overnight, nick the hard coat carefully on the side opposite the pale scar, and sow an inch (2.5 cm) deep in gritty acidic potting mix kept around 68F (20C). Germination takes one to three months. Seedlings usually take five to seven years to flower.
Whichever route you take, label everything with the date and the parent plant, and keep a note of the strike rate. Camellia propagation runs over months and years rather than weeks, and a written record of when you took the wood, at what stage, and how many rooted is the only way to work out what your conditions actually favor. After two seasons that record will tell you your best week for taking cuttings far more accurately than any general advice.