Camelia (Sad Looking) Longish post
 

I have a Camellia which is about 3ft tall with drooping yellowy leaves.
For a few years this Camellia was in the ground where it received sun
for most of the day and often looked poorly and i didn't know why.

I now realise that Camellias shouldn't be subjected to full sun and need
feeding....Six weeks ago I transferred the Camellia to a pot filled with
70% Erricacous and 30% ordinary garden compost. Placed the pot in a
sheltered location which receives some sun during the day, the plant
still looks a little sad.

The compost is moist and I am concerned that some leaves are still
drooping,changing to brown down the sides, then yellow and then
dropping off. Although there are plenty of green shiny leaves on the
plant too.

I realise that in the past i have neglected this plant and am wondering
what more I can do. For example should I start feeding it with liquid
Erricacous eg: "Miracle Gro" and if so how regularly ?I don't want to
overdose it.

Thanks for any info.

Moo

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 17:27:12 +0100, Moo [email protected] wrote:

I have a Camellia which is about 3ft tall with drooping yellowy leaves.
For a few years this Camellia was in the ground where it received sun
for most of the day and often looked poorly and i didn't know why.

I now realise that Camellias shouldn't be subjected to full sun and need
feeding....Six weeks ago I transferred the Camellia to a pot filled with
70% Erricacous and 30% ordinary garden compost. Placed the pot in a
sheltered location which receives some sun during the day, the plant
still looks a little sad.

The compost is moist and I am concerned that some leaves are still
drooping,changing to brown down the sides, then yellow and then
dropping off. Although there are plenty of green shiny leaves on the
plant too.

I realise that in the past i have neglected this plant and am wondering
what more I can do. For example should I start feeding it with liquid
Erricacous eg: "Miracle Gro" and if so how regularly ?I don't want to
overdose it.

Six weeks isn't long, leave it alone- apart from watering as needed.
It won't like overwatering and it won't like hard water. Start feeding
later in the summer when it looks a bit better but stop before - lets
say mid August, you want the wood to ripen, you don't want soft new
growth at that stage.
It is always a bad idea to feed a poorly looking plant when you know
the cause is not malnutrition - in your case the plant is still
suffering from being transplanted and as yet there's insufficient
active root for it to benefit from feeding.
It will look a whole lot better next year.

=================================================

Rod

Weed my email address to reply.
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 17:27:12 +0100, Moo [email protected] wrote:

I have a Camellia which is about 3ft tall with drooping yellowy leaves.
For a few years this Camellia was in the ground where it received sun
for most of the day and often looked poorly and i didn't know why.

I now realise that Camellias shouldn't be subjected to full sun and need
feeding....Six weeks ago I transferred the Camellia to a pot filled with
70% Erricacous and 30% ordinary garden compost. Placed the pot in a
sheltered location which receives some sun during the day, the plant
still looks a little sad.

The compost is moist and I am concerned that some leaves are still
drooping,changing to brown down the sides, then yellow and then
dropping off. Although there are plenty of green shiny leaves on the
plant too.

I realise that in the past i have neglected this plant and am wondering
what more I can do. For example should I start feeding it with liquid
Erricacous eg: "Miracle Gro" and if so how regularly ?I don't want to
overdose it.

Thanks for any info.

Moo

Camellias don't mind full sun, although they are probably happier in
dappled shade. I have several that get all the sun that's going (and
all the salt-laden gales!), and they thrive. I associate excess sun
with a corky texture on the leaves, but not yellowing.

Yellowing leaves sounds like chlorosis. Was it growing in acid soil
before you potted it up? If not, then I presume a lot of that soil was
still on the roots and went into the pot with it. In principle that's
not a problem, and when it's settled in I would feed it with a
fertiliser intended for ericaceous plants as you suggest, although it
will be a bit late for feeding this year. It's not a good idea to give
a high-nitrogen feed after mid July as it encourages late growth which
doesn't ripen before the autumn. At the end of July you could give it
a high-potash feed to encourage bud-set for next year's flowers. If
you want to feed something to compensate for residual alkalinity in
the soil, use Sequestrine itself or something similar (Murphy do one)
containing no other fertiliser.


--
Chris

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

"Moo" [email protected] wrote in message ...
I have a Camellia which is about 3ft tall with drooping yellowy leaves.
For a few years this Camellia was in the ground where it received sun
for most of the day and often looked poorly and i didn't know why.

I now realise that Camellias shouldn't be subjected to full sun and need
feeding....Six weeks ago I transferred the Camellia to a pot filled with
70% Erricacous and 30% ordinary garden compost. Placed the pot in a
sheltered location which receives some sun during the day, the plant
still looks a little sad.

The compost is moist and I am concerned that some leaves are still
drooping,changing to brown down the sides, then yellow and then
dropping off. Although there are plenty of green shiny leaves on the
plant too.

I realise that in the past i have neglected this plant and am wondering
what more I can do. For example should I start feeding it with liquid
Erricacous eg: "Miracle Gro" and if so how regularly ?I don't want to
overdose it.

Thanks for any info.

Moo


Camelias certainly only like Acid soil and must have all ericacous compost
and rain water too .......do not use Tap water ......they dont want their
feet wet either ........it may be just dropping stressed leaves so a feeding
of ericacous plant food might help

I agree with Rod, last year i planted a camellia which moved with me from my old house, and after planting it looked sick for ages, dropped a few leaves, hardly grew, and all the leaves drooped like it was on its way to plant heaven. Anyway kept it well water and later in summer it perked up and i even had 5 beautiful flowers on it this year which was unexpected seeing how poorly it looked. This year its put massive amounts of growth and looks in top condition, just need to keep up the night time trips with torch to stop those vine weevils taking chunks out of the leaves