What is wrong with my yellowing Camellia?

[Callunabee]

Hi, I have a Camellia bush that has been turning yellow over the last few years. About half of the bush is now yellow, with some brown patches on the leaves. It seems to be mainly on one side of the bush. Any idea what's wrong with it? It's planted in acidic soil and very close to a hedge. Thanks!

I was going to,say it needs a nice feed of iron, but that’s a really distinctive pattern of yellowing. I’d feed it anyway.

Is that all on one stem? If so, I'd be tempted to cut it out.

Yes, I think it's all on one stem, which made me wonder if it was disease rather than an iron deficiency..

It could be a deficiency in another trace element such as manganese. I agree that it's probably worth cutting out the diseased area, then you can feed it up and hopefully it won't return.

Wild stab in the dark... Have you checked the soil around that side of the plant? There might be the remains of something concrete down there, like where a fence post used to be. If so, that would be strongly alkaline and could affect roots that side.

Hmm, that's an interesting thought, thanks. There could easily be something in the soil. It's full of roots and very hard to dig in that area so it would be hard to check.

I've checked the plant and the yellow isn't isolated to one stem, it's starting to spread on the green side too. I might try a combination of cutting and feeding.

Thanks for all the replies