Tips on transplanting a large Camellia

Monsclara

Oldtree wrote: »

your local garden center should have a soil testing kit or one of these:

http://www.johnstowngardencentre.ie/mini-ph--moisture-and-light-meter--combination-meter/multi_meterpd.aspx

I havnt use them so dont really know how accurate they are.

Nonetheless i would add some ericaceous compost to the hole. (and chicken manure too )

as I mentioned earlier my camillia has responded to an organic liquid manure with some liquid seaweed therein. I would suggest that you keep an eye on the water content in the new hole as we dont know what type of drainage the soil under the cobble has, (moisture meter).

dont plant any deeper than the plant already is and apply a good 2-3 inches of mulch, composted bark, perhaps use the cobbles you take out to encircle to hole and use that to keep the mulch in place.

Thanks Oldtree. You're keen on the chicken manure;) Will have to add that if nothing else

Sonnenblumen

Camellias are reasonably tolerant of soil conditions, although they do prefer acidic soils, I wouldn't bother buying a soil tester kit for a camellia. Instead add plenty of ericaceous compost, leaf mould etc to the planting hole and feed regularly with a sequestrean of iron or similar acid feed to create an acid soil soil conditions.

No need to panic as Camellias will let you know if soil acidity is changing, leaves which should be dark green will begin to pale if lime levels are rising. If ignored plant will eventually shed leaf and die, but proper conditions can be easily maintained with regular applications of acid feed.

muckyhands

Sometimes plants flower profusely because they are under stress- in the plants mind, (not literally ) it thinks 'I' m going to die therefore I must produce flower/ seeds to propagate myself because I might die'.

Quite common to happen with plants that prefer acidic conditions- but no longer have them...

Did this Camelia 'flower its socks off' more than usual- then, well, do nothing, is what Im wondering?

muckyhands

Anybody else notice on post 3, in the second pic.



The lower leaves on left lower of pic, looks like vine weevil damage there.

Are there c- shaped notches on said leaves there Monsclara?

Could be the problem, vine weevils grubs eating away at your plants roots...

muckyhands

Sorry

Its post 4- second pic- my mistake.

Monsclara

muckyhands wrote: »

Anybody else notice on post 3, in the second pic.



The lower leaves on left lower of pic, looks like vine weevil damage there.

Are there c- shaped notches on said leaves there Monsclara?

Could be the problem, vine weevils grubs eating away at your plants roots...

Hello muckyhands. You might be on to something here. I took a few pics of the leaves at the bottom and they do indeed have notches. I put it down to snails but neither of the other 2 camellias have these notches so it may well be vine weevil. I've never heard of it (very inexperienced gardener ). Would like to hear what you (and everyone else) thinks.

Thanks

Oldtree

muckyhands wrote: »

Anybody else notice on post 3, in the second pic.
The lower leaves on left lower of pic, looks like vine weevil damage there.
Are there c- shaped notches on said leaves there Monsclara?
Could be the problem, vine weevils grubs eating away at your plants roots...

What keen eyes you have mr/mrs muckyhands, the closer you look the more you see...

are the stems of the plant rocking in the pot indicating root damage?

paddy147

Oldtree wrote: »

What keen eyes you have mr/mrs muckyhands, the closer you look the more you see...

are the stems of the plant rocking in the pot indicating root damage?

Women are keener eyed than men.;):D

Monsclara

Oldtree wrote: »

What keen eyes you have mr/mrs muckyhands, the closer you look the more you see...

are the stems of the plant rocking in the pot indicating root damage?

The stems aren't rocking, freely. If I rock the stem, it moves, but the whole pot of compost moves too. Well I'm going to go ahead and start digging the hole today. If I manage to get the Camellia out of the pot, is there something I can look out for in the roots? And if it's vine weevil as muckyhands' keen eyes have indicated , is there any treatment I can give the plant before planting?

Monsclara

Well I dug the hole, but hit stone half-way across. So dug as far as was manageable on the other side. Got the Camellia out of the pot, (with a lot of effort) and put it in the hole to see if the hole was big enough. It stands about 6/7ish cms proud of the cobble lock., see pic.

So if the hole is big enough, then it's Oldtree's recipe of ericaceous compost, mulch and chicken manure, I guess.:)

muckyhands

Looks like vine weevil damage alright.

Its a beetle whose white grubs eat plant roots and the adults eat the leaves, characeristic c- shaped notches out of leaves.






Get Nemasys to deal with grubs, read about it here-http://www.nemasysinfo.com/weevils.shtml

Oldtree

planting proud would be an issue, if you cannot get the hole any deeper then you going to have to remove some of the bottom of the rootball. Without wanting to start up an old issue, looks bit rootbound too to me...... runs for cover......;)

muckyhands

Oldtree gives good advice there re planting.

Could use the cobbles taken out to raise the edges enough so its planted at right depth.

Or maybe use sleepers to edge it, as I did in my garden. I painted them black.

Monsclara

muckyhands wrote: »

Looks like vine weevil damage alright.

Its a beetle whose white grubs eat plant roots and the adults eat the leaves, characeristic c- shaped notches out of leaves.






Get Nemasys to deal with grubs, read about it here-http://www.nemasysinfo.com/weevils.shtml

[IMG]http://s3-eu-west- 1.amazonaws.com/images.gonegardening.com/assets/product_images/27/vine_weevil_small.jpg[/IMG]

Cheers muckyhands. Is there anywhere in Dublin I can buy it? I was looking at the RHS website (now that I'm a keen gardener and got the tip off from Oldtree in an earlier link ) and they suggest:

"Ornamental plants grown in containers can be treated with acetamiprid (Scotts Bug Clear Ultra Vine Weevil Killer) or thiacloprid (Provado Vine Weevil Killer 2) as a liquid drench applied to the compost."

I went to homebase but they didn't have the right one (felt exceedingly confident about what a damn nusiance vine weevil is - given I only heard about it 12 hours ago:D)

They suggested Churchtown Stores which is a great shop, so I'll check tomorrow. But perhaps the Nemasys is better?

Monsclara

Oldtree wrote: »

planting proud would be an issue, if you cannot get the hole any deeper then you going to have to remove some of the bottom of the rootball. Without wanting to start up an old issue, looks bit rootbound too to me...... runs for cover......;)

Oldtree - you're such a troublemaker, but check out this pic:)

muckyhands

Monsclara wrote: »

Cheers muckyhands. Is there anywhere in Dublin I can buy it? I was looking at the RHS website (now that I'm a keen gardener and got the tip off from Oldtree in an earlier link ) and they suggest:

"Ornamental plants grown in containers can be treated with acetamiprid (Scotts Bug Clear Ultra Vine Weevil Killer) or thiacloprid (Provado Vine Weevil Killer 2) as a liquid drench applied to the compost."

I went to homebase but they didn't have the right one (felt exceedingly confident about what a damn nusiance vine weevil is - given I only heard about it 12 hours ago:D)

They suggested Churchtown Stores which is a great shop, so I'll check tomorrow. But perhaps the Nemasys is better?

Mr Middleton will have it.

I use it because its organic.

Monsclara

muckyhands wrote: »

Oldtree gives good advice there re planting.

Could use the cobbles taken out to raise the edges enough so its planted at right depth.

Or maybe use sleepers to edge it, as I did in my garden. I painted them black.

They are really cool. I don't think I can dig much deeper, so I think raising the edges will be the solution. I much prefer the sleepers to the cobbles

Monsclara

muckyhands wrote: »

Mr Middleton will have it.

I use it because its organic.

I prefer the idea of organic, but is it as effective?

And another thing..............! Anenomes. Do you have any advice on managing them? They are getting completely bashed by the rain. When dead heading, should I cut the stalk right down to the bottom? Should I get rid of dead or dying foliage? And should I give them tomato food?

Bet you're sorry you posted on this thread! It's just that they are lovely but I'm not having much luck with them.:(

muckyhands

Monsclara wrote: »

I prefer the idea of organic, but is it as effective?

And another thing..............! Anenomes. Do you have any advice on managing them? They are getting completely bashed by the rain. When dead heading, should I cut the stalk right down to the bottom? Should I get rid of dead or dying foliage? And should I give them tomato food?

Bet you're sorry you posted on this thread! It's just that they are lovely but I'm not having much luck with them.:(

Oh What type Anenome do you have?

Mine is called 'Honorine Jobert', perennial late sumer to autumn flowering...

No problems re the rain we have had...

Cut back dead foliage late spring if at all...

If youre growing plants in pots, in peat, then weevil problems are to be expected to be honest...

I used it once before-Nemasys- problem solved but to be honest if I have to go to all that trouble just to grow one plant in a pot- I dont. :D:)

Monsclara

muckyhands wrote: »

Oh What type Anenome do you have?

Mine is called 'Honorine Jobert', perennial late sumer to autumn flowering...

No problems re the rain we have had...

Cut back dead foliage late spring if at all...

If youre growing plants in pots, in peat, then weevil problems are to be expected to be honest...

I used it once before-Nemasys- problem solved but to be honest if I have to go to all that trouble just to grow one plant in a pot- I dont. :D:)

They are Anenome Mistral. I have 3 red ones and 1 blue one.
The URL shows what they should look like and they did look like this when I got them.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/490559/211960.jpg
But every time they grow to about 12/15 cms, the rain bashes the petals off. I've attached 4 pics. There is a single red one in 1 pot https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/490559/211956.jpg
and 2 red and 1 blue in trough with yellow pansies.https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/490559/211959.jpg
You can see a fresh one starting up in trough on the left but you can also see dead foliage of the one (blue) next to it.https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/490559/211957.jpg
The one in the pot (red) has 2 new flowers and they do grow to about 10cms but petals normally don't survive very long because of rain. I had been dead heading, leaving the stalk, but now I am cutting back stalk and all. Really not sure what to do with them .They are really beautiful and it's a real shame that they don't get a chance to show themselves off.#
I may have made a mess of this by pasting links into message body, but lets see what happens when I post.

arandale

Montclara, another organic remedy is to wash out a bean tin or such like, get a potato and peel a little skin and put a criss cross on the potato showing the flesh then put it into the tin and get a long nail, lie the tin on its side and pierce it and put the nail through the tin and potato, put this under the Camilla and it can be used in pots too.
You will never be bothered with the grubs in pots if you use a little clay with the compost. Its only when you use total compost you have the grubs.

muckyhands

PEAT FREE ANYONE. :D:D

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=77782974

Monsclara

muckyhands wrote: »

PEAT FREE ANYONE. :D:D

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=77782974

That's mental - I was looking for peat-BASED compost recently and couldn't find it anywhere

Monsclara

arandale wrote: »

Montclara, another organic remedy is to wash out a bean tin or such like, get a potato and peel a little skin and put a criss cross on the potato showing the flesh then put it into the tin and get a long nail, lie the tin on its side and pierce it and put the nail through the tin and potato, put this under the Camilla and it can be used in pots too.
You will never be bothered with the grubs in pots if you use a little clay with the compost. Its only when you use total compost you have the grubs.

Grand, so should be OK with the replanting the camellia in the ground?

Monsclara

Replanted the camellia yesterday and took everyone's comments on board. The log roll seemed to be the handiest solution for a raised border It's not particularly tidy, but hopefully it will survive.

Thanks for all the comments. No doubt I'll be back with more questions on other stuff.:)