My camellia is potted and lives on an urban deck. In the spring, it was full of beautiful blooms and lush foliage. This summer it has been plagued with aphids and mealy bugs. I have sprayed two different times, 3 times each. My bush appears to continue to fail. It is dropping perfectly healthy-looking leaves and getting new growth, but it has few new buds and looks very “naked.” What is wrong with it? I have noticed small insects in the soil as well. I have added a watering of Safer-soap-with-water mixture but it seems to have had no improvement. Please help!
I wonder what kind of spray you have been using. Was it the Safer soap product?
Aphids seldom cause the demise of a mature plant. Aphids are attracted to lots
of leafy new growth, so it is best to avoid quick-release high-nitrogen
fertilizer. The best way to keep aphids in check is to encourage natural
predators like ladybugs, syrphid flies, lacewings, and parasitic wasps. Broad
spectrum pesticides will harm the helpful insects as well, so I would avoid use
of those. Mealy bugs are also a favorite of natural predators like those
mentioned above. Usually, regularly spraying jets of water to knock the aphids
and mealy bugs off the plant’s leaves should keep the damage in check. If
necessary, you can use insecticidal soap, but always test it on a small area of
the plant to make sure it does not cause any damage to the leaves.
It is possible there is something else going on with your camellia. Here is a
link to University of California, Davis’s Integrated Pest Management website,
with a list of problems affecting camellias. My own camellias do shed a certain number of healthy green leaves every year, but still manage to keep flowering. Excessive leaf drop may indicate overfertilizing, but it could also be a sign of too much or too little water.
Did buds drop from the plant, or did they simply not form? Failure to form buds
might be a result of cold injury (although since you had flowers in spring, this
seems to not be the problem), or it could also be a sign of overfertilizing with
a nitrogen-heavy product which encourages leafy growth at the expense of
flowers.
You may want to bring samples of the insect-affected leaves and the insects in
the soil to a Master Gardener Clinic for identification and diagnosis. You might
also mention the excessive leaf drop, which can be a symptom of Sudden Oak Death
(Phytophthora ramorum).