On 11/08/2013 10:13, jorosieholt wrote:
Hello. I am new to gardening so please be patient with me! I have this
camellia tree which was in my front garden. It is absolutely beautiful
but I wanted it moved to my back garden. I consulted a qualified RHS
gardener who said it would be okay but might not bloom next year. I had
it moved but the buds and leaves have all gone brown but it is growing.
Please could someone give me some tips about pruning it back so the tree
would blook again? I have tried to, but I am unsure how much I should
prune. Thank you.

If the buds and leaves have all gone brown, how do you know that it is
growing? I assume you are in the UK., as you are asking through
gardenbanter. Where are you in the UK? Some areas here have had almost
drought conditions now for several weeks. If the camellia hasn't been
watered almost daily after it was replanted (and I mean soaked, not just
a small can of water) then its chances of survival are slim. Don't
worry about using hard water to water the camellia. It might go a bit
yellow after a while, but will recover from that. It won't recover if
it has dried out.

This is absolutely the worst time to move a camellia. Could it not have
waited until mid or late autumn? If it wasn't moved with its rootball
intact (and how big is this "tree"?) I doubt it will survive.

Sorry to be so negative, but I have been planting small to medium-size
shrubs of all sorts over the last few weeks after moving house, and have
to spend every other day watering them to ensure their survival - the
soil here is dry down to at least a foot. And those are from pots, not
plants being dug up and moved.

--

Jeff