If I were planning to enter a flower in a show, I might pinch one bud off, so that the other might have a larger bloom. I don't show camellias, though, and don't see the point of disbudding otherwise. I don't have any idea if it matters which bud you keep, unless one just doesn't look viable.

The theory of disbudding makes sense, but I don't know just how much of a difference it makes to increasing the size of the survivor... perhaps quite a lot with some large-flowered varieties, and not so much with others. 'Pink Perfection', for example will never have large flowers, and much of its charm is that crowd of small, perfect blooms.

Those multiple buds may be a 'built-in redundancy' to promote flowering success- if one bloom gets zapped by the cold, the extra bud(s) may still get a chance to flower a week or two later when conditions may be more favorable.

Good luck,

Virginia

Disbudding is more useful to us folks that do show flowers. It puts more energy into one flower per stem, plus it gives it more room to open to it's fullest extent. I probably disbud more buds than I keep on the plants, but I am a die hard show circuit person. LOL