What's the matter with my camellia?

[MunsteadWood]

It's not been in the ground long, maybe a couple of months.

Looked lovely and luscious and green when I bought it, so it's obviously something I'm doing / not doing.

What do you all think? It's in a sheltered east facing bed, full sun until lunchtime then shade in the afternoon, clay soil. Fresh compost in the planting hole, have been watering periodically.

But it doesn't look happy! What can I do?

It's a camellia japonica "Dr King" variety

I don't know anything about camellias but your thread title sounds like a Country & Western song

Where have you planted it in your garden. I see roses behind which are usually planted to get a decent amount of sun and don’t like the soil to be to acid.
Camellia need light shade and acid soil.

Ah yes. I haven't really thought this through have I. Both in an east facing bed, no idea about the pH but the rose has been in there a few years and loves it, so I'm guessing not acid. Our garden faces north so the bed gets no sign at all in winter but lots of morning sun from about Mar/Apr until Oct/Nov.

Seems like I need to move the camellia...

That should say no sun, not no sign!

Looks like weather damage to me. Either wind damage or rain has got onto the leaves and then the sun has scorched them. I think east facing is fine for a camellia. Sometimes thing can conspire against us. Last year one of my Acers was a total wreck due to high winds but is fabulous this year. There is not much you can do about if for now. I would Give it an Ericaeous feed, then just leave it. In autumn mulch with ericasious compost . Hopefully you will be rewarded with lots of flowers next year. One other thing is that, plants quite often don’t flower in the first season after planting. They put their energy into establishing the root system to support the plant,

I bit the bullet yesterday and dug up the camellia. It was looking really sorry for itself but because it was so close to the rose (which I LOVE) I didn't think an ericaceous feed or compost would be a good idea. It's now in a shady corner in a big tub of ericaceous compost. Fingers crossed it'll be happier there.

Don’t worry if it does not flower next year. The often go dormant (sulk) the first year after flowering. Hopefully you will have a lot more years of flowers after.