[totalnovice]

Hiya All,

I have a camelia which is about 7 yrs old. It has been in a pot of erichacious (sp sorry) compost, given only rain water and fed regularly with camelia and azalia food....
...However this year it is not happy. A lot of the flower buds turned brown before flowereing and fell off (it is kept out of ealy morning sunshine and is shletered from strong winds) and quite a few of the leaves are truning either yellow and dropping off or turning brownish and falling. It is trying to put on new growth as usual at the tips of branches.

I have always papmered this plant because it cost a fortune originally    and i really don't want to have to replace it. I know that it has been a hard winter but it seemed all right throughout and has only just started to look sickly.

Help! Any advice.

[Debz]

My mum has 3 camellias and they don't get the treatment that yours does.  They are usually covered in flowers but this year barely have a flower between them.  We are blaming the long cold winter but yours might benefit from being repotted.  That's a long time to have your feet in the one place even with feeding.

[Trillium]

I agree, that 7 years in a pot is quite stressful for both the roots and food source.

Here are some basic tips to try:

http://www.camelliaweb.org/kb_results.asp?ID=43