Some critter are my camellia roots

Watch Reply
More
Mark unread Print Skip to new
Umgowa Roswell, GA Apr 13, 2009

Yesterday I noticed one of my camellias was bending over in an unusual way. I examined it and discovered that half the roots had been bitten off. It had no support on one side. I dug it up and took it to my local nursery and the expert there said it was definitely some critter eating my roots. He also said he'd never seen that before with Camellias. Has anyone out there ever had this happen to them? And if so, do you have any idea what kind of critter it could be? . . maybe a squirrel? We have a lot of squirrels around here. He also suggested I get wire screening to put around the base of all my camellias . . Any thoughts on that? Thanks. John in the Atlanta area.

Post #6404188
Quote
ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Apr 13, 2009

Could be voles too, I think you have those in your area and they munch on plant roots. I'm not sure that many of those root-eating critters are overly picky about what roots they'll eat. There are some things like Euphorbia that taste really bad, but most other things are fair game. I'm not sure about squirrels--I know they will eat bulbs and they've done some damage to plants digging around them to bury nuts, but I'm not sure that they'd eat the Camellia roots.

As far as the wire screening around the base of the plant--if it's squirrels that'll help since they're above ground digging down but if it's something like voles that are underground you'd have to dig the plant up and make a wire basket for it in order to prevent them from getting the roots (I do this with most of my plants to keep the gophers from destroying them)

Post #6404531
Quote

Post a Reply to this Thread

Please or sign up to post.
Back to Forum Homepage

More Beginner Gardening Threads

Go to all Beginner Gardening threads
BACK TO TOP