Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Japanese Camellia Struggling

jd36451jd36451 Posts: 5
in Problem solving
Hello all. New here but need somewhere to start asking a bit of advice on garden related issues. 

I have this Japanese Camellia that we managed to move from one part of the  garden to another approximately 10 years ago due to it being in the way of a new lawn for the kids when we moved into the house. It took some digging up and probably lost a lot of its roots so took quite a few years to recover and flower again. 

It has begun looking quite bare the last year or two now and hasn’t flowered. Should I be watering it in the summer months and would it help to add anything to the soil? 

Posts

  • jd36451jd36451 Posts: 5
    🤔 Don’t know why those photos have posted sideways. They are the right way in my camera roll? 
  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    edited October 2023
    Hi and welcome,
    It is the size of the images, if you make the a little bit smaller they will come out the right way.
    I do not know how to do it but if another member comes along one of them will often fix it if you can't :)

    So the camellia has been in its new position for a few years now and was okay.
    I am not sure but possibly the dry year we had last and this year has been an odd one.
    So could be down to watering.

    Can you post a close up of a couple of leaves that are dying.
     
    And also give the bark a little scrape on the ends of some of the twigs to see if there is healthy green underneath.
    Or are you able to snap the twigs with your fingers, are they dead?

    Is that a holly or something growing right underneath it too?
    That might be giving it competition, although I do not think it is the main reason somehow.

    There is a very healthy looking bit at the base that is still Camellia I think.
    So maybe hope.

    They do lose old leaves at times as all "evergreen " things do.
    But it does look a bit poorly.

    I would check the surrounding soil and give it some good waterings if the soil is dry.
  • jd36451jd36451 Posts: 5
    Yes there is some holly growing around it that I need to pull up. The neighbours have quite a few large trees up at that part of the garden so maybe they’re taking a lot of the water? 
     It does look healthier at the bottom doesn’t it. 
  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    Is that also ivy behind, the ground around the Camellia looks very tidy and clean and also to the side lonicera clippings that has been cleared and cut back?
    Were they overgrowing or overshadowing the Camellia branches.

    Sorry for the Spanish inquisition, but the more you can answer the better help you will get.

    The colouration of the dying leaves may also give clues whether it might be a iron deficiency which can happen or some other cause/disease.

    And finally (sorry) what soil do you have?
  • jd36451jd36451 Posts: 5
    I will get more pictures in the next few days and update. Yes there is probably ivy growing in the hedgerow behind it. It hasn’t been overly overgrown around it. Just maybe small weeds recently cleared. Sorry I haven’t been able to resize the pictures. 
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Try taking your photos in the landscape rather than portrait. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Unless you're in a consistently wet part of the country @jd36451 , it'll have suffered over the last two years with the amount of dry weather and heat. They're quite shallow rooting, even when that sort of size, so it's easy for them to get dried out. The soil does look very dry. A lot of competition from other planting makes that moisture less available too, and it can be hard for rainwater to get through and into the roots where it's needed. Trees in particular, and that hedge, will certainly have been taking a lot.
    If you water thoroughly, then keep adding compost/manure/leaf mould/bark - ie any organic matter, as a mulch, that will help it retain moisture in drier spells. You can cut back the dead top growth, ideally when there isn't freezing weather in the forecast, and that healthy growth at the base will benefit, as the shrub won't be trying to save all the foliage, and can concentrate on that part. You may need to wait until spring to do that depending on your location.
    They need to be well hydrated through late summer as that's when the new buds form. Same as rhodos.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    1.  Sequestered iron.  It won;t cure the yellow leaves, but should stop them reocurring.

    2.   Plenty of water in dry wearher in the summer when the flower buds sre forming.  You may have noticed buds dropping early/
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    At the gardens where I volunteer,  there is a small bank of camellias. The ones at the top are struggling   the ones lower down are fine. They need plenty of water. For a plant the size of yours unless you're getting plenty of rain  put a ring of mulch round to make a little moat. Give it 3-4 10 l (2gallon)  cans of water, slowly, put one on let it soak in then the next. Rain water if you have it. Then spread the mulch to keep the water in. If no rain then a least a whole can weekly., till November assuming it will have finally cooled down by then. As mentioned the flower buds form in late summer Autumn.  As said on here many times before do not feed a struggling plant, wait till it recovers.
    AB Still learning

  • jd36451jd36451 Posts: 5
    Thanks for all your replies. Heres a photo of the lighter leaves. Gave it a good watering today and will make sure I trim back the dead branches next year and give it plenty of watering. 
Sign In or Register to comment.