On 31/3/09 09:41, in article ,
"Charlie Pridham" wrote:

In article ,
says...

My camellia started of in a pot, and flowered for a couple of years ,
then
on the third year it produced a mass of really big buds which all
fell off before they had the chance to flower, i did read that if they
are not watered enough throughout the summer months that this could
happen , so i thought it would be best to plant it in the ground which
i did , it was about 3 feet high by then ,
so i planted it in a really big hole and watered it well for weeks
afterwards, and also gave it camellia food. but now it has black
stuff like soot on its leaves and it has not produced one bud this
year. and the leaves are not as green as they used to be. my
roderdendron seems to do ok in my soil so i am not sure what is
wrong, do you think i should just dig it up and try a new one?




--
may

I think others have already covered the fact that your camellia has scale
insects under the leaves, I live with mine on one bush, if you put a bird
feeder near it in the autumn the numbers of overwinter scale insects will
be a bit reduced by the blue tits who will spend their time waiting their
turn at the feeder foraging for them.

Buds falling off while it was still a pot plant is probably uneven
watering, I am surprised you should need to water a camellia in the
ground in anything other than very dry periods, but I would imagine as
pot plants they would be tricky to care for as they have big root systems
which would fill the pot making it hard to water it is worth noting that
frost overwinter can cause buds to drop as well. I certainly have never
fed or watered any of mine (not that we have a lot)

The reason it is not flowering now could be a combination of not enough
sun/warmth last year coupled with hard frost this winter, it is not
likely to have been drought given the summer we had last year!

We don't water ours in any deliberate fashion. If the spray lines go on
during a hot spell (remember those?!) they'll get a dollop along with
everything else but that's it. I think May's just needs time to settle
into a new regime and will probably be much happier in the ground.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
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