Just a question, isn't Miracle Gro fertilzer? You don't say what sort of pot you have planted it in.I would suggest you plant it into a reasonable sized flower pot, one that easily takes the rootball, but doesn't swamp it, in an ericacious compost. As a camelia is an outdoor shrub, it should be the other side of the patios doors. I have found shrubs discarded on rubbish tips that have survived; just don't over water it thinking that's what it needs, or over pamper it. Put it in a quiet part of the garden and let it get on by itself.

floridabear- Okay, now that the dust has all settled and everyone can take a deep breath, let's move on. As to your original post asking if someone in the area could come to you and help you re-pot your plants, it appears no one in your area saw the post other than saylorgirl, who admits being a novice and inexperienced, but willing to learn. Hang on to her! Since you were unsuccessful in finding someone in your area available to do this for you, do you have any interest in trying this yourself? If so, I suggest you write out a list of questions you have about the process, make a list of available sources of information (Rachel's Reflections, AVSA website, etc). Then go ahead and do some research about re-potting necky plants. After that, if you still have unanswered questions, again make a list, then post the questions here. Stan, nobody on this forum wants to ignore you or see you lose plants, but you make it a little difficult because you are so frustrated. We get that, but I think we all get frustrated too. You initially didn't ask for advice about how to pot, you specifically wanted to 'hire' some one to come and help you. Instead, we all gave you advice on how to do it yourself, since we don't live near you. I think that shows we are helpful and concerned people. If I lived in your area, I would do it for the price of a cup of coffee, and I'm sure most if not all of the rest of the forum members would do the same. As a matter of fact, I am going to an elderly ladies house that is about 60 miles from me to see if we can figure out why her plants are dying one by one, from over 50 to about 25 now. And I'm sure if I lived near you and asked you to show me how to plant amaryliss bulbs, you'd be more than happy to share your knowledge. Decide what you want to do, and let us know how we can help. Barbara

Adelae...Let's get back to basic again if you will??:-) Sorry for the detour took on your thread.. Have you checked the roots? What do they look like? Do they look healthy? How wet is your mix a few days after watering, in the root zone? Have you bought a wooden dowel to REALLy make sure the root zone is either damp or dry before watering? Have you checked for spider mites with a magnifying glass very carefully under the leaves? Fertilizing is going to do nothing if the roots are impaired and the mix soggy for to long of a period of time. If this mix is not porous, it's going to hold salt deposits that will kill the finer roots which do the bullwork of providing nutrients and water to the tree. If the roots are good, please post a pic for us to see, then it will recover. John know Meyers more than anyone and has said many times over that they like to drop leaves for many reasons and he was not kidding..It takes time to please these plants in every way. Just because it's loosing leaves it does not mean it's going to die as long as the roots are securely safe and happy in a very nice porous mix. Mike

All of those idea-wood filler, etc. are of no value in this situation. Think about it: While you said you suspect chemical damage, the truth is, that's likely not the cause of the damage on your tree alex. So for the sake of this discussion, let's just settle that by admitting we don't know how that happened. So somehow, the tree was wounded. And "the tree" is a part of a genetic heritage stretching back for-at a minimum, I don't really know the full story of the origins of Prunus without research-hundreds of thousands of years. What has happened during that time is, animals have bitten, scraped, trampled, and otherwise damaged trees, wind has blown, ice has built up, and weather generally has been a factor this whole time. So the trees have largely, though not 100% perfected various means of dealing with all these damaging agents. They produce a variety of chemicals that have antibacterial and/or especially antifungal properties, they produce different types of cells, some of which start out as undifferentiated callus, which can become just about any type of cell the tree or shrub needs to repair itself. In fact, the entire model, called CODIT-Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees explains this all much better than I'm going to do right now. Look that up or a guy named Alex Shigo-pretty much-with some tweaks-the background for modern tree biology. Anyway, main point is, with just a couple exceptions-pruning oaks in the growing season (I know-better yet, don't prune oaks during the growing season!) and some "liquid copper" preparations, which while I've never seen or used, I have heard good reports from sources I trust, including-apparently-the ability to prevent decay from setting in even when very large limbs or even co-dominant stems are removed. But for your deal, you can't really help the situation. It was a pretty bad scrape and it will take some time for the tree to lay enough new wood around that area but yeah, in time it could be alright. Cherries are not long-lived plants under the best of circumstances, but you could still easily get a nice little chunk of years out of it. +oM