Leaves are darkening after late and unusual freeze... ?? normal?

17 years ago

Hello. This is my first spring (after being planted in the winter) with my Camellia, which is a Pink perfection. It did not bloom in the fall, like I thought it would, but it did bloom a few weeks ago - late winter/early spring. It was getting new growth and the leaves were very green and lush. As most know, we had an unusually bitter cold spell here in the eastern USA on the first weekend of April 07'. I had covered my Camellia (which is about 7 inches tall) with a paper bag.... I made a big no-no and forgot to uncover it one day, but it was unusually cold, but sunny that day. Seems like recently, the leaves are darkening on it. I hope I have not damaged/killed it. I am not normal if this leaf change is normal for these in spring or not. Can someone tell me if this is normal? If not, is there anything I should do other than wait to help it? I have alot of money invested in some new plants/trees such as this one and I think many were damaged/ruined by this extremely late and hard freeze that we had a couple of weekends ago.

Here it was in late March:

[IMG]http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e172/Tennesseestorm/Tree%20album/100_4629.jpg[/IMG]

and here was a couple of days after the major freeze... note the browning on some of the leaves... its worse now.....

[IMG]http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e172/Tennesseestorm/Tree%20album/100_4700.jpg[/IMG]

I will take more photos tomorrow of how it looks now... as mention, the leaves are turning black in some areas.

Thanks in advance!

Comments (3)

luis_pr
17 years ago
Hello, tennesseestorm. I really doubt that you have done anything serious. The leaves could be responding to the shock of changing lighting conditions (normal to dark, then dark back to normal).

Except for the really dark areas, I actually prefer the look of the leaves in the latest photo because the leaves look a nice dark green.

The leaves in the first photo look too greenish-yellowish. In some you can see the veins (indicating a Ph Problem) while, in others, the leaf was starting to yellow out like it does when the plant gets too much sun.

So for now, I would just:
(1) keep an eye on the leaves,
(2) monitor the Ph Level (once) too see if it is somewhere below 7 and
(3) make sure that the plant is getting part shade, morning sun (that means around 3-4 hours of sun).

Other than that, it looks great to me, tennesseestorm.
Luis
quiltycat
17 years ago
paper bags no problem- never plastic.
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tennesseestorm
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the replies guys/gals. That photo with the "darkening" leaves was a couple of days after the hard freeze. They are darker now and when I say darker, I mean black looking in a way. I have been meaning to take updated photos, but I have been busy... I will try to take them tomorrow.

Yeah, I also used a paper bag on my 2 year old Southern Live oaks and I forgot to remove them on the same day and the new leaves were totally destroyed- the new leaves turned jet black and crisp. That was nearly two weeks ago and I have seen no sign of regrowth... I hope I did not ruin them.