Vonney,
Seasol although benificial is a tonic only. Using it when potting up and or transplanting is the right thing to do. But you also need to give it a good feed of the most suitable fertilizer weather organic or not. I have good results using Azalia & Camelia Food in combination with 4vital every 6 months and Fruit Care monthly(sounds incorrect but it is not). It sounds as though it is also getting sunburnt. Can you set up some shadecloth and then remove it gradually so as to give the plant a chance to re acclimatize.Also plenty of water on a rising temperature.
Regards,
Joe

My suggestion is to put some saturaid in with the potting mix or compost which surrounds the root ball. They do take time to re-establish and I would give it two flowering seasons to settle in. The other alternative is to give it some plant starter alternating with your seasol to get the roots moving. I would also make sure you had plenty of pea straw or sugar cane mulch on top of your organic compost to hold in the moisture. The shade cloth idea is also a good one. Some species are much more sun tolerant eg. hybrids & sasanquas whereas the Japonicas need more protection. Good luck. I tried to re-establish some camellias two years ago and without other tree competition some have done well. Unfortunately a neighbouring 12metre oak, just 1.5m from our fence has taken all moisture from 4 others and they have just turned up their toes!

Hi Vonney,
Rotating a mature shrub/tree 180 and putting Camellia in a suunier spot will cause it to sulk for quite a while, as it has to aclimatise itself all over again. If you have been having as sillier weather as we have in the north, the poor thing will be out of sorts as well. Good luck. Peter r

Here is a link that might be useful: ACS

Thanks for your help everyone - it has been getting lots of TLC (in fact I sometimes wonder if that's the problem). I have given it doses of Seasol, blood & bone, Iron chelate and epsom salts - not all at once, but now and again. It has got buds so it's probably not thinking of dying on me - I shall try to exercise some patience and see how it goes over this Winter and Spring. Maybe pruning will help invigorate the branches - should I wait until after flowering to do this?

Yes you should wait until after flowering to give it some more shape. Go for it when you see some new buds appearing. Sometimes I do this and forsake the last few flowers especially on some japonicas as they seem to be bursting forth with bud while still having flowers. Patience is important but sometimes you can also take a few cuttings usually round Dec. if you think it is doomed.

Definitely wait until after flowering before pruning.

And I think I'd hold the blood and bone, etc. as well - you don't want to burn the new roots or overdose the plant. In any case, the camellia has to produce new roots before it an effectively take up nutrients. Give it some nice mulch (but keep it away from the trunk), keep moist (not wet) and BE PATIENT.

The weather is going to cool down a bit and that will take some of the stress off the plant. If it is likely to get blown about in the wind, consider putting in three or four temporary posts with attached shadecloth. At the moment, the plant is probably a bit top heavy with few anchoring roots and movement is likely to break the new roots. The shadecloth will filter the wind and keep the plant stable.

Alternatively, use 3 or 4 guy ropes (pad the trunk well) atttached to short posts to stablise the plant.

Thanks for your help everyone! Nice to have some encouragement - the weather here (Melbourne) is now cooling down quite a bit and the poor thing will have a bit of relief from the heat, so may start to feel (and look) a bit happier. I will give it one last feed next month and then sit back and see how the Winter and it's flowering go. After flowering I think a pruning will give it a bit of a kickstart and maybe some nice dark green glossy leaves will re-appear!!

There are some wot say - never feed a sick plant...

There is probably already enough nutrients in the soil for the plant to access. If you feel you have to feed her, perhaps a couple of applications of a weak Thrive solution applied over the foliage might be more beneficial.

I used to fertilise my camellias with blood & bone and the very occasional application of Azalea & Camellia stuff (when I remembered to buy it). Since our severe water restrictions were imposed a few years ago, I stopped fertilising for fear of burning the roots. They have to make do with lots of mulch and all the goodies (and baddies) in the bathwater. They haven't turned a hair - growing happily and currently most have baby buds forming. I was even rash enough to plant two more last spring. More bucketing for me.

Thanks Wombat - OK I'll sit back and let things evolve! I'll talk reassuringly to her every day and maybe she'll reward me with a beautiful display of flowers as she always has done in the past. Footy season has arrived, so I'll concentrate all my efforts on footy tipping rather than stressing out over the camellia!