By Elleme
Greater London,
England 
Camellia reverting
I have a red camellia which I inherited from the previous house owner 14 years ago. The plant is fairly healthy in my slightly acid soil and up until now has had double flowers. This year some of the flowers are single as if it is reverting to the more natural form.
I like plenty of bees and other pollinators in my garden so I prefer the single flowers. If I leave it alone will it revert fully? Is there anything I can do to encourage it to revert faster?
29 Mar, 2014
Answers
I spotted at least three single blooms on different stems. I only had a quick look and there are quite a few buds still not open so there may be more.
29 Mar, 2014
Often happens, especially when conditions are less than perfect for a plant and it's under some stress, so it just can't perform as it's designed/bred to do. As GG says, it happens, but it's not consistent. Some C. japonica cultivars can revert, though, to their ancestral form, so yours may.
30 Mar, 2014
In theory, you could remove branches which are still producing double flowers, but I suspect that will make the bush look untidy. Other than that, there's not much you can do to encourage reversion - it should just continue as a process anyway with any luck.
30 Mar, 2014
Thanks all. It's blooming quite well this year so I shall leave it alone. I have noticed that the blooms seem a bit variable this year as a few are semi double as well.
1 Apr, 2014
Hi
Is it all over the bush all a single stem.
Sometimes with double flowering plants you end up getting singles occasionally , I think that has happened
29 Mar, 2014