Camelia leaves are yellowing . . . .?

Question

Why would a Camelias' leaves turn a yellowish green? They are putting on new sprouts, so it's not dying - just loosing it's pretty deep green coloring.

ANY SUGGESTIONS???

Added note: Plant is outside - about 25 years old - about 8 feet tall x 7 feet wide. This is the first time it has ever done this. Have some new sprouts popping up about 5 feet away from a different bush (larger main bush was cut down) - they too are yellowing, they are about 4 feet tall. We're baffled. Could they use iron or something?

Answer 1

The camellia plant does this periodicly based on conditions of lighting and time of the year. But it does not involve a significant number of leaves at any one time.

I would relocate the plant to a totally different environment, move it to a different room, where light and heat is different, in order to hault this process and save the plant. Even though those sprouts appear, the time to grow new supporting leaves is months, so to hault this process is very important.

One thing you do not want to do is to apply fertilizer to a plant such as this and of course avoid overwatering the plant and in particular, see if the drainage is good for the soil surrounding. Too much water and poor drainage can rot out the roots of this plant and cause it to die off.