On Sat, 5 Apr 2003 19:52:52 +0100, "Peter Donovan"
wrote:

In have a problem with a Camellia somebody might help me with.I have two
plants one on the front garden and one at the rear.The rear garden plant is
full of blossom,and doing fine every year.While the one at the front garden
is looking very poorly with yellowish leaves,and no flowers.The soil is the
same both back and front I have given the poor plant a good dose of dried
blood fertiliser to see if that is the problem.The soil must be pretty acid
as my Rhosedendrun grow well.Any ideas?

Could be several reasons. You say the soil is the same front and back,
but if your house is fairly new, the front garden might have been
spoilt by builder's activities (cement, rubble, compaction etc.). The
camellia might be in a pocket of alkaline soil, or in poor rubbly soil
that dries out very quickly in summer, or it may be poorly draining
and get waterlogged in winter. It may be in full sun, while the one in
the back gets some shade.

If it were mine I would mulch it with a 3 inch deep layer of moist
peat each spring, and feed it once per month with sulphate of ammonia
(1 heaped dessert spoon in 2 galls water) from now until July. Then I
would then give it a similar dose of sulphate of potash in August.
Also a couple of doses of chelated/sequestered iron and trace elements
such as Sequestrine in early summer. Come to think of it, I believe
Miracid combines fertiliser with chelated iron, so you could use that
in place of the sulphate of ammonia. Make it to the strength they tell
you on the packet. But don't use either beyond July, and then do give
it a watering with sulphate of potash.

If the summer's hot and dry, water it well, twice a week, in the
evenings. Camellias set their flower buds in late summer/early autumn,
for the following year. If they get dry at that time, the buds abort
and you get little or no flowers next year. Watering with sulphate of
potash encourages bud formation. If you continue with nitrogen
(sulphate of ammonia or Miracid) too late in the season, it encourages
late soft growth which doesn't have time to ripen and set flowers and
may also get damaged by frosts.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net