QUESTION: I have a two-year-old camellia (Mrs. Charles Cobb). Although it had a lovely deep red, fully opened bloom when I bought it, since then it hasn't had any blooms that opened up. This past December I counted as many as 28 flower buds on it, but none opened. They just turned brown this last month, and I am sure they will drop off or have to be removed. What am I doing wrong?ANSWER: I think it is highly likely that the sudden drop in temperatures last month caused those buds to freeze and turn brown. Mrs. Charles Cobb is a mid-season camellia and should be opening now.Camellias grow best when planted where they get uniform moisture, have mulch to keep the ground from freezing and are protected from morning sun in winter. Since you told me your plant is in a sunny location all day, I would consider moving it to a shadier spot while the plant is still young and easy to move.

QUESTION: I have a large number of rhododendrons. Every year a couple of them bloom in the fall. Of course the blooms are incomplete, and then there is no spring bloom.Beginning last year and continuing this year, a large percentage of the plants have bloomed in fall. They are healthy. Most of them are more than 10 years old.Is there anything I can do to get them back on schedule?ANSWER: It's the weather. Autumn was long and mild, about as pleasant as humans could wish for. Along the way, there was a little cold snap that simulated "winter." Then it got warm again and simulated "spring." So, the buds that formed in late summer began to open. But only partially - incomplete is the way you correctly describe it.It was this up and down of the temperatures that makes this happen. If only autumn could act like autumn with a slow and consistent chilling.Then in December, it got really cold and those partially opened flowers got zapped. Around Christmas I mourned the demise of more than a dozen blooms in my side garden. They're brown and their true potential will not be realized in May. This weekend, I shall pick them off the plant and dream of spring.When this out-of-season bloom occurs, it usually does not affect all the buds. Some, like those you describe, are still in tight bud and hopefully will remain so through the winter. They will open on time in spring.Camellias are a different matter. Many of the early-winter-flowering types were open on schedule and frozen during a few very cold nights in December. A worried gardener asked me this week if the buds on his camellias were also ruined like the flowers, which went from red to brown.Happily, they are not. Flowers in tight bud are remarkably hardy. The warmer weather we're now having will bring them along and they will open as they mature.

QUESTION: You often say winter is appealing in the South. Why is that?ANSWER: Think about garden's bones. As shedding leaves thin out the garden, these bones get revealed. That includes a myriad of things, from the lines of paths to the shape of shade trees.The season also reveals structures such as walls, arbors, gates, steps and even trellises holding up your favorite climbing rose.Many of these shapely and structural parts of your landscape are partly enclosed by flowers and foliage during the long growing season. They're there because you walk on them, use them, depend on them.But you don't give them that much notice when the flower and vegetable beds are brimming with bloom and produce. But now they show up, and its a grand opportunity to study these bones, perhaps in preparation for additions to the garden's structure this winter and spring.For example, you may now see more clearly an arrangement of ornamental or shade trees that seems tailor-made as a destination for relaxation. With a pair of comfortable chairs and table - maybe even a fountain - you've got a destination. Getting there is another matter of structure. A straight, paved walkway is a rigid bone, one that seems inflexible and a bit unfriendly.A curving path of stepping stones is a more pleasant and informal way to link the house with your destination. Such stones, especially if planted with something interesting along the way like daffodils or daphne, also encourage you to walk slower and enjoy the trip as well as the destination.Send your gardening questions to Nancy Brachey, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, N.C. 28230.