"China" wrote in message ...

With the hot & dry weather we have been having I would
tend to suspect dehydration. Watering every day is not the way to go. Small
waterings daily only wet a very shallow soil profile and can actually force
the roots to stay around the soil surface, where they remain vulnerable. It
is better to water heavily and less often. Flood the ground several times
with a water breaker type nozzle or set a sprinkler going. So instead of
walking around the garden with a hose in your hand, set the sprinkler to
reach a modest area, and you can still poke around in the yard checking
things out and keep moving the spray around every 10 - 20 minutes. Hopefully
this rain will solve your problem, {:-) . Another thing may be that an over
generous feeding is the culprit. Have you fed them lately? How long have
they been in the ground? Are they planted in Botany sands ? Does your dog
spend far to much time bonding with them? Had the plants been 'hardened of'
before planting?

Thanks for the suggestion of flooding the ground. I'll try this with
a watering can.

I have fed them some fertiliser just recently, though it wasn't that
much. The Camelias and Magnolias have been in the ground about 6
months now. The soil isn't the sandy type and the dog generally
leaves it alone. I didn't harden off the plants before planting them
- how do you normally do this?

Could it also be too much sunlight?

Thanks for the response,

Han.