Have you ever been to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens?
They are home to a beautiful camellia garden.

So now you've expanded into camellias. I only grow them outside. The one time I had one inside, it ended up dying due to inadequate watering. They like it cool in the winter and should put up with shady conditions if containerized. One of mine seems a bit confused and was blooming outside recently.--Though the variety I have typically blooms in March. They appreciate acid soil conditions and need some shade from sun--both summer and winter if grown outside. I have mine up close to the house as their evergreen leaves (and the flowers) are quite tempting to local deer--they are in the tea family and quite edible apparently.--You should be able to do quite well with them as containerized plants just keep them really cool over the winter.--The average home is just way too warm for them in the winter. And do not let them dry out!

Mike,I remember reading several articles about gardeners in your region that grow camellias indoor. I would love to hear about your experience after you give it a try. I found one article written by Tovah Martin back in 1992. I am going to attempt to add that link to this message.

Here is a link that might be useful: Camellias in Northern Connecticut

Camellia japonica has long been recognized and used as a good conservatory or cool greenhouse subject. In such locations the fragile flowers can open without being damaged by outdoor weather conditions. But you need to have the space for tub(s) of eventually large bushes, that only bloom for part of the year.

And it needs to be on the cool and humid side. Ordinary indoor conditions are liable to be too dark, dry and hot. Most of the species important in our gardens are from forests of southeast Asia, particularly China, where although summers are hot they are also wet (as they are in the Gulf States) - and winters are not so cold. Hot and dry, like it tends to be in a living room is not a combination they like.

Hi everyone..Thankyou so much for all your input..

I bought 3 of them in the past month, and so far so good.
I have them in bright light with just late in the afternoon or morning sun. They are under my skylight on a shelf.

The room is kept in the 60's by day and 50's by night, unheated. The humidity is kept on the high side, at about 60-80 percent all winter. I hope they do well. I did have one bud fall off already, and not sure what this means. I hope the others stay on and open for me. I think they are adjusting to being pulled out of the nursery.

I can say though, except for all the amount of light they were use to getting in the nursery, the actuall temps and humidity levels with moving air are pretty close to what they were use to in in my plant room.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I will post pictures soon. Thankyou so much!

Do you fertilize these at all at this time?

Mike.:-)

I only fertilize them during the growing season, Mike. While the leaves are still green now in January and throughout all winter, they are somewhat dormant. When I water them, I mix some liquid seaweed from Lowes/etc. with the water once a month. This is a weak fertilizer and should not trigger the plant from going into growth mode now, specially if used sparingly.

This time of the year, it is probably more important not to forget to water the shrubs in containers than it is to fertilize.

Oops, I left out the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Container grown camellias, by the ACS

A great link and great info..

Thanks so much for that and thanks to everyone else for helping!

If just one bud opens, you bet I 'll be back and post it...

Mike:-)