Q: My camellia bush has been full of buds in fall for the last two years but none of them open. They eventually all fall off. What can I do?

A: An hour after you called, a listener named Kip rang me up to say that an older colleague at Pike Nursery once taught him to watch for camellias that seemed overloaded with buds and to twist off half of them before bloom time. Kip reported that it worked like a charm! My guess is that your camellia simply doesn’t have enough energy to support all of the buds at once. Keep an eye on your bush early next fall and try Kip’s tip.