This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Curling camelia
Goldie4
Posts: 14
I bought 2 camelias a few years ago, they are planted in the same area of the garden, one is thriving, the other looks very sad. Its leaves have curled over the last year, there are small divots on the underside of the leaves and a brownish tinge.
Do I cut my losses and dig it up? What could be the problem? My soil should suit camelias and I use miracle grow camelia food during the summer.
0
Posts
Can you scratch the 'divots' off with a thumbnail, or get them off with an old toothbrush and some water with a drop of washing up liquid added? If so it is probably some kind of scale insect (guessing without a photo!) If that is the case you need to remove them, either in one of the ways above, or by touching each one with a cotton bud dipped in methylated spirits. Look carefully at the stems too, as they often lurk there as well. The bush should begin to recover but would benefit from some additional tlc, perhaps a foliar feed, and you will need to watch that no more appear.
I don't grow camellias, but my late mother had some lovely ones in her garden.
I'm wondering whether you plant has an infestation of one of the types of leaf scale - there is information here
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=483
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks for the replies. It doesn't look like scale - I cant scrape it off, but it looks very poorly. You can see its pal (bought on the same day) in the background looking quite cheery.
Last edited: 21 March 2017 11:46:14