if it is a plain old RBud ... it may sprout from the ground sooner or later.. or in spring ... if it is a grafted plant... and it sprouts from below ...it will not be the cultivar you bought.. but a plain old ... if you have a warrantee ... exercise it .... and learn about proper planting times.. and proper watering ... ask for re-planting in late September or early April in z5 ... if the seller balks.. offer to take a smaller tree ... smaller trees transplant easier.. and 'establish' faster ... and can easily outgrow a bigger transplant in a given ten year period ... ken

The adults may be dead but the eggs that hatch around August may not be so, be ready to apply the insecticide again. Since lace bugs are small and the nymphs are even smaller, the best way to identify them is if the leaf damage continues or reappears. They suck leaf juices from the underside of leaves so you need to look there when searching. For tea scale in camellias, I apply oil emulsion sprays when the temperatures are below 85 degrees, as spraying at other times may burn the leaves. Reapply in 60 days if the problem persists but no more than three times a year. Scale also sucks leaf juices from the underside. There are several types of scale that attack camellias and they look different from each other. There is Camellia Scale, Peony Scale, Tea Scale and Wax Scale. You can locate pictures in the Internet by keying on phrases like "camellia scale pictures" or "camelia scale images". You can tell they are dead when you can no longer see them under the leaves and, of course, when the damage ceases and does not get worse. The leaves will not recover much but, eventually, the existing leaves will be replaced by new leaves. In the case of deciduous azaleas, you will get new leaves in Spring. In the case of evergreen camellia sasanquas, they tend to drop the oldest leaves after a year or two, around May/June, so it may be a while before any damaged leaves are replaced.

I would really like to know the outcome of your gardenia. I have the same problem...my self watering also failed. I have some remaining green leaves on about 1/4 of my plant. I Cut it back serverly about two weeks ago. Still no new growth. I've had this plant for about 60 years. It lives year round in a heated greenhouse. It made it through a freeze about three years ago so am hoping it will survive this trauma.

Portulacaria afra, aka mini jade/ dwarf jade/ elephant bush/ spekboom is easy to grow in the right light and appropriate soil. It shouldn't be allowed to dry completely, and if the leaves look shriveled and have lost their plump appearance, the plant has been experiencing severe drought stress for much too long. Judging by the deeply wrinkled periderm, your tree is so dehydrated it's almost certainly dead. If it is still viable, you might hope it has the means (energy reserves) to push new growth from very close to the shoot to roots transition area (base of the trunk). How close supplemental light should be from the plant depends on what the light source is. For instance, a halogen or HPS light can be very effective, but it isn't appropriate to have it near the plant. Fluorescent and LED lights SHOULD be very close to the plant because they run cool in comparison to some other bulb types. Your light should be rich in the blue end of the spectrum for this plant. Al