It could be the crazy weather conditions. Would you please do me a favor, today if possible. Pick a few leaves from each shrub showing this problem and take them, mail them to your nearest extension office. All of the plants you mentioned are host plants to Sudden Oak Death (SOD). Probably better to identify the problem exactly. If you do a search for SOD and study the pictures carefully you will understand why I am urging you check this out. Demand that the brown spots be cultured so there is a positive identification of the problem.

Thanks Nandina for the advice.
In my search, I came across sod and am hoping it is not that.
I will take some leaves to the extension office.
Will sod kill the plants or does it kill just oaks?
I hope it is just the weather as we have some beautiful oaks that I would hate to lose.

Well, let's calm down. Planted 5 years ago aren't suspect for sudden oak death.

The 2nd image shows something I've seen on camellia leaves several times. Although it makes me think of virus I haven't located any info to verify that.

Not certain if pix 1 is an earlier stage or not.

The 3rd image shows leaves that were water-short some time ago, probably last summer.

Thanks for the reply!
We are in a major drought and are getting our spring rains.
Quite a few of my evergreens look so bad right now.

I have been waiting for a posting similar to Jean's. This old timer learned many moons ago to listen carefully when a plant problem is being described. In this case it was not the pictures posted of the Camellia leaves that caught my attention. Rather it was..."I am also having similar problems with my tea olives, magnolias and gardenias." This sentence led me to suggesting finding a positive identification of the problem.

I would further suggest that the questioner take a stroll around neighborhood gardens to see what is going on. Is this a widespread problem or just in one yard? Detective work is often necessary. Although the Feds only identified SOD about three years ago arriving on west coast grown Monrovia plant stock it probably was going on earlier, just not noticed. Time will tell.

We are in a rural area so the closest gardens would be several miles away.My neighbor's have all horse pasture.

I will make a point to try and find camellias within a few miles of me and check them out. With the spring weather, quite a few people are outside working in their yards and I can ask them.

I wonder if the spots could be caused by the snow and water sitting on the leaves and the the sun scalding the water droplets onto the leaf?

Thanks for the insight!

Dear lsst,
I don't know whether this is any consolation, but I also garden in Zone 7b (SC) and have about forty young seedling camellias in gallon-sized plastic pots that look similar to yours. The leaves are spotted and brown around the edges. I'm hoping that they're showing cold damage and will recover in the next few weeks. The seed parents of our seedlings are 'Berenice Boddy,' 'Christine Lee,' 'Imura,' 'Leucantha,' and 'Lady Vansittart.' A few are from unidentified seed parents. A few of our older camellias that have been in the ground for a number of years show a little cold injury, most noticeably a variegated 'Adolphe Audusson.' We've also had a poor blooming season due, I think, to the drought and a couple of periods of extreme cold during which we experienced a couple of nights with temperatures near ten degrees Fahrenheit. 'Governor Mouton,' which is, for us, normally a spectacularly beautiful and dependable variety, had, at best, a mediocre showing this year. Our forty-four-year-old 'Governor Mouton' was fairly pretty, but not up to par. However, its foliage looks fine. Our camellias that bloomed best this season were two 'Magnoliaeflora' japonicas, a 'Flame,' an 'Adeyaka,' and a 'Pink Perfection.' I've got to make a trip out to the northside of the yard to check on the 'Diddy Mealing' and the 'Turandot' japonicas. Our very late blooming 'Pink Champagne,' or 'Camellian,' japonica has a number of swollen pink buds that look as though they will be gorgeous. However, the nearby 'Eleanor Hagood' and 'Yuki Botan' have had poor quality blooms. 'Imura,' which normally blooms well for us, has had a poor season. And even 'Berenice Boddy' hasn't been up to par. One of my favorite seedling camellias that is about forty years old was on the verge of opening a huge number of blooms just as one of the cold fronts swept through. It was blackened by the cold. It came up underneath a 'Lady Clare' and a 'Governor Mouton' in my aunt's garden in the 1960's and produces a profusion of imbricated and rose-form dark pink tinged purple medium-sized flowers. But not this year. _Mais c'est la vie_. Another sad note is that our 'Lady Clare,' which in normal years blooms from November till March, also bloomed very poorly this year. In the past few days, however, I've noticed a number of fresh blooms on it; and its leaves look fine.

Thanks Jay!

I am hoping it is this crazy weather.
Of all my camellias, One looks perfectly fine. It is a variegated red/white that I propagated. The mother plant is about 20-30 years old and about 15 feet tall.

The damage has not progressed and all my plants are putting out new growth so that is a good sign.

My Professor Sargeants have always had tons of blooms early in Nov. just to get hit by freezing temps. I have never had
more than 4 or 5 make it to full bloom.

It was said: "I have been waiting for a posting similar to Jean's. This old timer learned many moons ago to listen carefully when a plant problem is being described. In this case it was not the pictures posted of the Camellia leaves that caught my attention. Rather it was..."I am also having similar problems with my tea olives, magnolias and gardenias." This sentence led me to suggesting finding a positive identification of the problem. "

Well here's the view from another oldtimer.

My comment re the 3rd image was "leaves that were water-short some time ago, probably last summer."

Thus my comment also extended to the OP's statement of "I am also having similar problems with the browning ...."

The first two images reveal symptoms far different than in the 3rd.

The first 2 images don't exhibit water stress.

I believe the spots on picture one and two are possibly frost damage. I've seen similar instances on some of our plants after a freeze. The yellowish tint to photo # 2 looks like it might either be water, nutrient, or pH related or a combination of these.

Picture # 3 shows brown leaf margins which could be from a number of causes other than SOD and I agree with the former poster that we shouldn't jump to the SOD conclusion. Plant stress or moisture loss from heat, root problems, or fertilizer or salt damage could present the same type of leaf margin burning that is exhibited here.

Dear lsst,
Do you know the name of your red and white variegated camellia that bloomed well this year? If so, please post it to this list. I'm interested in finding one of them for our yard. One of my favorite and most dependable Oriental red blotched white camellias is that old standy: 'Governor Mouton,' aka 'Aunt Jetty' or 'Angelica.' We have several of them, the oldest being about forty-two years old. That plant didn't bloom as well as normal this year because of the timing of our winter cold spells; nevertheless, it was pretty. I don't think it has ever had a total floral wipeout. It blooms dependably year after year in February and March.

my mature camelias are covered with this white splotchy stuff on the stems and branches. what is that. ? it is killing the plants. please help. thanks

Jay,
I have no clue as to the variety as I propagated it from a mature plant that had been planted many years ago.
I do have two camellias that are blooming very well. They had the spots that I feel fairly confident are cold and snow related. I do not know the name but is is a variegated pink and red variety and some of the blooms are a solid red on the same bush.

The 'white splotchy stuff' may be wax scale. If so, you need to contact your extension agent or a good nursery for spray recommendations.