Camellia buds falling off before they open - anyone know why?

[MajesticWhine]

Hi - can anyone help. I know nothing about gardening, but I have a rather pretty camellia (I think) that produced a large number of healthy looking buds which looked like they were about to open up beautifully. But in the last week or so they have mostly fallen off. The plant is in a pot on a partly sunny patio, it has sat out all winter.

Does this mean there is something wrong with it, or perhaps something I should have done differently to it? Thanks in advance.

They need lots of water when the buds form in late summer I believe. Water should ideally be rainwater. They also need acid soil (ericaceous). If the rest of the plant looks healthy enough this is probably the reason.

I agree it's probably a lack of water over the previous Summer.

If the buds went brown just before they dropped then it could equally be cool temperatures or frost over the winter.

Is the plant otherwise healthy?

Thanks both. It's a shame I was looking forward to seeing the flowers. Yes, the plant otherwise looks ok. One or two yellowish leaves. I am going to consider repotting it in a slightly larger pot, and can give it the right soil then and hope it does better next year.

Pop some fleece over it in winter. We were still getting low overnight temps here in March/ early April.

My mum always sprays hers with sequestered iron stuff so I do the same every now and again. I have no idea what it does They seem to like it.

Make sure when you re pot it that there are no buds left at all, they are too delicate at that time! Also you need to get some nice soil for them. The RHS has a good page on Camellias here