PESTS AND DISEASES
Up until now there has been very few problems experienced in growing camellias. Unfortunately Camellia Petal Blight, an air born fungal disease that browns the petals soon after opening, has now been confirmed, Feb 2023, here in Australia. It has been detected in TAS, VIC, SA and NSW. At the moment, weather you suspect you have it or not, the best advise is to keep all the dropped blooms cleaned away from under the plants and dispose of them in the landfill garbage and not the green waste bins. Do not add them to your compost as this will just spread the spores. More information can be found in the following documents camellia_petal_blight_paper_9_sept_2024.docx
managing_petal_blight.docx
Tea Scale can be annoying and will make the leaves of camellias lose their lovely green colour. Scale can appear on both sides of the leaves as small black or brown spots. The hard scale protects a small sucking insect that robs the leaf of moisture and disfigures the leaves.
Russett mites also attack leaves and will cause the leaves to have a brown mark all the way along the centre. This problem is associated with camellias growing too densely or plants growing too closely together in the ground. There are mites that can prevent camellias from opening their blooms.
Die-Back can occur in camellias as it does in other trees, this makes a branch lose all of it leaves and bark. Affected branches should be cut off.
Other pests can be leaf-chewing insects that are not confined to camellias. Snails, aphis and thrips attack many types of plants, not only camellias.
Up until now there has been very few problems experienced in growing camellias. Unfortunately Camellia Petal Blight, an air born fungal disease that browns the petals soon after opening, has now been confirmed, Feb 2023, here in Australia. It has been detected in TAS, VIC, SA and NSW. At the moment, weather you suspect you have it or not, the best advise is to keep all the dropped blooms cleaned away from under the plants and dispose of them in the landfill garbage and not the green waste bins. Do not add them to your compost as this will just spread the spores. More information can be found in the following documents camellia_petal_blight_paper_9_sept_2024.docx
managing_petal_blight.docx
Tea Scale can be annoying and will make the leaves of camellias lose their lovely green colour. Scale can appear on both sides of the leaves as small black or brown spots. The hard scale protects a small sucking insect that robs the leaf of moisture and disfigures the leaves.
Russett mites also attack leaves and will cause the leaves to have a brown mark all the way along the centre. This problem is associated with camellias growing too densely or plants growing too closely together in the ground. There are mites that can prevent camellias from opening their blooms.
Die-Back can occur in camellias as it does in other trees, this makes a branch lose all of it leaves and bark. Affected branches should be cut off.
Other pests can be leaf-chewing insects that are not confined to camellias. Snails, aphis and thrips attack many types of plants, not only camellias.