.

I would contact your local extension agency for advice. I really don't know what's going on there, although I guess you could be seeing a delayed reaction to drought conditions.

I also wonder about gophers, or other critters that might be chewing up the root system.

The green under the bark makes me think all is not lost. Good luck with figuring it out.

Virginia

I read that camellias that are hosts to the pathogen that causes Sudden Oak death rarely die from it, although they can suffer from Ramorum blight. That can affect foliage, but it doesn't sound like it would do so all at once, and I agree that Camellia Dieback is generally a more gradual process.

I'm inclined to suspect a situation where that one camellia's conditions have changed for the worse. I would have mentioned herbicide (such as Round-up) drift, but it seems unlikely that only one one camellia would be affected by drift. If RU were used to kill nearby plants, however, that could have affected only the one camellia.

A digging or tunneling critter chewing on roots seems possible; if that's the problem, though, I'd expect it/them to be chewing on the roots of other plants. If not yet, then soon.

The other camellias in the photo look fairly close to this one, but if that's a trick of photo perspective, it could be the case that they are getting watered adequately, but the troubled camellia is getting too much- or given drought conditions there- too little water. As Luis says, check the moisture surrounding the plant by testing with your fingers. While checking, have a look for any evidence of the camellia having root damage of any sort.

Good luck,

Virginia

Hi, my camellia has just done exactly the same thing. It is planted in the ground and has been there for 10 years now and has survived hot summers and cold winters. It is now spring here in the UK and has just finished flowering and was looking quite healthy, I took off the brown buds when tidying the border and the leaves turned brown and crispy overnight. No other plants have so far been affected. I don't know what to do or if it can even be saved.

So you had some brown flower buds or brown leaf buds?

And all the leaves were green yesterday and all the leaves are now brown today?

Can you check the soil to see if it feels dry, moist or wet? For example... if I get some soil using two fingers only and press with the two fingers, wet soil would form water droplets.

How has your weather been? Any temperatures below freezing in the last week or so?

If you walk in the vicinity (or far away too I guess) of the camellia, do you see the soil disturbed?

I weeded the border at the end of last week, I have planted new plants in the gaps, the weather has been lovely but not too hot and I have watered every other day, but only a small amount just to keep the soil damp, nothing out of the ordinary. I noticed the leaves were all dead on Monday, all other plants are fine and the camelia has survived a cold wet winter which finished several weeks ago, it doesn't make sense.

It had flowered really well over the last couple of months and had now finished flowering, hence why I took off the few brown buds, there are always a few that turn brown.

Hmm, "watering every other day" seems like a lot of watering for the type of weather that you describe and for a shrub planted in the ground. Root rot can be a risk after a wet winter, followed by watering the soil every other day. I am not sure how well your soil drains all this moisture.

Were you watering that often out of habit or did the soil feel dry and thus you watered? My weather and soil may be your opposites ;o) but I try to let the soil aaaalmost dry out before watering again or I use a moisture meter to help me decide if I should water. Thus, I water maybe once/twice a week in Spring only (more once temps skyrocket past 100F/37C). I also skip watering at all if it has rained a lot during the week.

I could see a lot of overnight leaf damage if temperatures had "cratered" down considerably but that does not appear to be your case. In cold regions of the northern US States, camellias may loose a lot of foliage when temps go down a lot but, leaf out time in Spring corrects that. If you scratch some the stems, do you "see green"?

It sounds that the shrub is located at the edge of your property. Do the shrubs in your neighbor's side show any issues or show indication of use chemicals (like insecticides, etc)? Have you applied any chemicals (for example, amendments to turn the soil more acidic, etc)?

The following two camellia dieback and root rot links may help you:

https://www.americancamellias.com/care-culture-resources/insects-and-diseases/camellia-canker-dieback

https://www.americancamellias.com/care-culture-resources/insects-and-diseases/camellia-root-rot

Thank you for your helpful suggestions, I think I may have worked out what has happened. I sprayed the inside door hinge on my car with wd40 as it was in need of lubrication and the camelia is situated in the border nearby, it possible had some overstay. That is the only explanation I can think of. I am not a keen gardener but have not done anything different to any other years. I park my car about 1 metre from the plant, and although I sprayed from inside the car the door was obviously open. Thank you for your help, I am now going to try feeding it!

I have newly planted camelias and have had a similar experience, where surrounding plants are ok but one has turned completely brown and died over a few days. I thought it may be soil ph because I read they dont like lime, however all soil conditions were the same for each plant. Will do as suggested and check moisture between the plans.

I had that happen to mine. First one plant, then the other, all the leaves turned dark brown and fell off over a period of about three months. I thought they had gotten some devastating fungal or blight disease that I hadn't known existed and that I had lost them (ten year old plants). I was going to dig them up and put something else there, but never got around to it. Then low and behold, after sitting there basically leafless for several months they started putting out shoots. Now they are fully as leafy green and lush as they ever were and one of them is blooming.

I still don't have any idea what disease hit them, but they definitely recovered well from it, all on their own. I'm just hoping yours does the same.

Eeeeek mines done the same and now all leaves are dead. Can I ask what happened? I’m wondering if I should cut it back or not.

Is it a lost cause?

Hard to say without more information: what happened and when, watering info (how much, how often), your location, soil type (is it sandy?), has it done this before in mid-March, etc.

In cold zones, camellias can loose foliage during winter but then they leaf out as Spring arrives. Because of my mild winters, camellias here do not loose foliage so such an event would most likely be caused by lack of water. Like when I turned off the sprinkler due to sub-freezing temperatures that were going to last multiple days and then I forgot to turn the sprinkler back to 'on'. At this point, it is hard to tell if the branches died to cold injury, lack of water or if the roots are still alive while the rest of the plant looks dead.

A camellia that has not displayed signs of life (leaf out or new growth from below) by mid to late May is probably dead. At that point, I would feel comfortable in investigating further with harsher techniques like directly looking at the roots, pruning branches in 1 or 2" increments until I see 'green' or hit the bottom of the plant, etc.

Note: a plant that has lacked water and that looks dead may be salvageable if you extract it early (before it dies) and then, carefully, so as to minimize disturbing the roots near the top 4" or so, you dunk it in a bucket full of water until you see no more air bubbles (maybe 1-2 hours) and then replant it. If the plant is too big to extract, consider immediately watering a little and then putting a hose around to drip water slowly (like in drip irrigation) for 2 hours or so... or use a soaker hose to get the soil moist (not too soggy) down to 8" or so (depth can vary depending on how old the camellia is).