Is this disease or damage?

[stripycat]

I ordered a yuletide camellia online (Gardening Express, I know now it has "mixed" reviews!) and it arrived today.

A fair number of leaves have spots, damaged edges and are slightly yellow. I'm happy with the rest of the plants I received, it's just this one.

Any ideas as to what's wrong with it please?

I wouldn't be happy with that. It looks diseased and they shouldn't have sold it to you in that state. The foliage looks very yellowed as well, it should be dark green.

Garden express are one of the worst companies I have ever encountered. Ask for a refund

Thank you. I will be getting in touch with Gardening Express but I'm not hopeful. At best, I guess I'd have to pay to return it which will be expensive and then wait a long time for a refund.

If it's not going to die or spread, it might be cheaper to try to fix it. I want to go back to them with some idea of what's wrong with it ideally and I can't find any pictures that look quite like this online.

I've ordered from them once before and those plants were good and are doing well, and the other plants in this order are also fine.

Maybe contact them with some photos, tell them you are unhappy with the diseased condition of the plant and ask for a refund. Also tell them that you are not prepared to pay for return postage, and if they want it back they will have to send you a returns label and arrange carriage.

If you get nowhere, then treat it with some spray fungicide, leave a few days and then dose it with some liquid seaweed. You can use it as a foliar feed and spray it on, or water the entire thing, getting the leaves wet as well. If that doesn't work, then Google says give it some Epsom salts to treat magnesium deficiency, which I think it might have as well.

Gardening Express claim it's weather damage. I'll put it in a container and try to bring it back to health, and stick to my local nursery and garden centres from now on.