Help! Sick camellia

[OrmIrian]

I have a beautiful camellia in a huge pot. It's about 3 years old and was doing well. Had loads of flowers this year. Leaf buds appeared as usual but when they opened all the new leaves began to wither. It's well watered and not in full sun all day. Does it need ericacious (sp) feed? Any ideas please?

[LittleEgg]

No advice but sympathy. My camelia is not well either poor thing. We are not very green fingered and have only had it a couple of months, it has gone from a beautiful healthy blooming tree to a sorry, yellowing thing. It had too much sun. It has now been moved to a shadier spot and is getting better. I do feed it every two weeks now, with Maxicrop Sequestered Iron which says it is for camelias etc during the growing season (no idea when that is, but you might!).

[LittleEgg]

Bumping this for you - I want to read the advice too!

[sauce]

yeah, help needed for mine too. Only 3 wimpy blossoms this year but lots of yellowing leaves that drop off.

[fishie]

how are you watering it? tap water not good

[Twiglett]

ericaceous plant food

[nickytwotimes]

yellow leavevs mean chlorosis, so iron / ericacious feed needed. (excuse awful spelling) not sure what is wrong with yours though ormirian! little egg, yours will be lovely again in a few months with the feed.

i bloody love camelias!

[PeachesMcLean]

I had the same problem and my mum came along and gave it a serious ericacious feed, with a look on her face like I hadn't been feeding my child. She also said used tea bags around the ground would help.

[sauce]

me too! I have 2 of them. One healthy, the other not. Will try the iron/ir-whatever feed. Thx

[thefuturesbright]

Camellias like life acid. Agree - feed them with ericacious feed, teabags roudn them are brilliant (if not beautiful) AND water them with rainwater (no limescale in it) if you can get hold of it. They are used to growing under a canopy of trees so they like a bit of shade/not scorching sun, and they don't like drying out.

Other possibilities: if it's been in the same pot for a few years it may appreciate moving to a bigger one with some fresh ericaceous compost.

And check the compost for little creamy curvy grubs with a brown head - the dreaded Vine Weevils, which eat roots from underground and kill your plants where you can't see it happening. There are lots of ways of getting rid of vine weevils, check your garden centre or go online and buy Nematodes for them.

[LittleEgg]

What a marvellous excuse to drink more tea [sips eighth cup of morning]. So, reading the info on fishie's website, I need to use rainwater if poss and not tapwater? Not much rainwater round here though, it would take weeks to get enough for one feed. Mine is looking healthier but think it could be because all the yellow leaves have fallen off now . Will definitely try the teabags.

Does anyone know if using pre-boiled water is any better than straight from tap? (feels like I have a newborn again).

[OrmIrian]

OK. I can do the teabags. I can probably do the rain water and the ericaceous feed. But why when I've been feeding with tap water from time to time has it been OK so far? Is it because its never had to be watered at this time of year before? Possibly the new leaves are more vulnerable. Anyway...another thought. Would it be a good idea to mulch with leaf mould? Mum and Dad have a little woodland area and they collect their leaves to make a mulch. Good idea?

thefuturesbright - it's a huge pot so I don't think it needs more space but I guess a change of compost might help.

Thanks everyone.

[OrmIrian]

Does the tap water do as much damage in a soft water area? We don't get any limescaling in our house so would that make a difference?

[thefuturesbright]

tapwater isn't deadly poisonous to camellias, it's just gradually debilitating. any water is MUCH better than drying out. leafmould would be lovely, as long as the soil isn't dry underneath - water first then put the leafmould on. leafmould is lovely.