camellia

[orange pekoe]

All the leaves and buds have fallen off my camellia which has been quite happy for 12 months and which was thriving. The fallen leaves are bright green and don't show any iron defficiency. The flowers and buds fell off after the leaves and all looked very healthy, we have had no frost.....where am I going wrong?? I did feed with sequestrated iron. Now all I have left is a naked stalk!! HELP !

Orange Pekoe ( Jo)

[christine]

Quote from Christopher Lloyd's 'The Well-Tempered Garden' :

"It is worth mentioning that when a shrub sheds all or most of its leaves, following a shock like transplanting or frost, it has a high chance of recovery. The leaf-dropping is a defence mechanism and cuts down on transpiration at a time when the roots are in no fit state to replace water losses. If, on the other hand, the leaves die while still on the tree or shrub, then it is probably a goner."

Don't know what the shock might have been, but it seems your shrub may yet recover.

[orange pekoe]

Thanks Christine, I will keep my fingers crossed that it will make a come back ! Don't know what the shock was either.....we do live about 1/2 mile from the epicentre of the West Midlands earth tremor that occured about two years ago, had my camellia shed all its leaves immediately after that event I would have quite understood !!