If they were mine I would consider them dead at this point and remove them.

If they were growing in shade when you bought them and then you planted them in sun - all the more so if yours is in fact a hot climate - then the change in exposure could be enough to kill the existing leaves right there. Otherwise you really shouldn't have brought home plants described by the vendor as having some kind of problem in the first place! Because not only may those go on to fail completely after planting out on your property, they might bring a disease or pest with them that goes on to infest your site and create additional trouble.

I am in Victoria, Australia.

the climate at the moment is around the 38-40 degree mark (this week) middle of summer.

considering I paid $70AUD per plant FOR TEN PLANTS, I am not going down without a fight to try to keep these plants going.

they are intended as a screen hedge once mature and established.

the sole reason they are struggling is my own fault for loosening the soil (to try to dry them out after overwatering) and not keeping on top of the water In the heat.

they are in a bit of a raised garden bed with a soil mixed with sandy loam.

it should in theory drain well but never truly dried out completely.

I bought one of those Ebay water tester things and it always says the soil is soaked down a bit lower.

I had these camellias specially ordered in as they didn’t have them large enough in stock so was unable to assess the plants prior to purchase.

after getting them home I checked all ten of them out and got in contact with the nursery, the man I have been speaking to from the nursery didn’t get a chance to assess them before I collected them & advises the brown spots on the leaves were due to overwatering. the plant is unable to disperse the excessive liquid it is taking in.

might I just say that Emborthium, your snarky critical “advice” based on the assumptions you are making is not required or appreciated.

The fact that I mentioned four out of ten plants are having this issue & all others are doing well, should be enough for you to understand that this may not be a change in climate issue.

they are sunscorched, if you google this you will see that camellias with a shortage of water supply in an intense heatwave will become sunscorched and the leaves will dry out, as I mentioned originally.

I did not come here to find out why they look this way or to be told to throw away nearly $300 of plants without trying to save them, I came to find out how to best help them recover. You have not done this, so take your assumptions and over opinionated comments somewhere else.

Sasanquas are sturdy plants; I must say that I have never seen one so frail and spindly that it required strapping to a stake, like a vine. Is that a cultural trend in your country?

I've grown Camellia from seed, as well as cuttings and none have ever looked like that. I had a nursery and grew thousands of them in containers and never once produced one that grew (looked) like that.

That alone worries me.

Perhaps scratch the stem a bit to see if the stem is brown or green. Probably very dead!

I found that some of mine that were in more shade then others has gotten a bad case of scale on the backside of the leaves. I treated a couple of months ago with a soil drench & plan to treat again in the spring. I really hope that I can save mine.

They were specially ordered in for me, not the right time of year for them but I still expected it to be bushier but I think they were planning on pruning them back to be bushier to sell as advanced trees so I assume the priority would be for them to grow them to a height THEN allow them to grow bushy, they are 1.2mtrs tall if not a bit taller now. They looked a lot nicer before they dropped their leaves.

they are definitely not dead, they still had new leaves (which have just been fried off/sunscalded) and most of the branches have green tips so no need to scratch back any bark :)

we are making a shade sail to protect them from the harsh midday sun, they will get morning sun & be mostly shaded the rest of the day to give them a chance to recover.

I will be keeping the water up to them & hoping for the best!

Consider putting an umbrella at the top somehow... or something (like the sail) that will provide shade. I sometimes have to do that with hydrangeas. If they survive, I would wait for them to get bushier in future years (I have not tried it but pinching may help).

This should help :) (once complete, anyway!) will have a shade cloth on it they are on the south side of the fence

Great minds think alike! I am also going to put some shade cloth on two that are getting a tad too much sun. Just have not gotten around to installing it yet due to Christmas. Signed, the procrastinator! Hee, hee, hee.

Follow up: 70% shade cloth allowing morning sun only & they’re shooting new growth. fingers crossed it’s upwards from here!

Good luck. If only the affected leaves would simply return back to their original and nice looking state..... wishful thinking! Ha!