Dorcascents

Dorcascents

My camellia of 4 years has developed a black sooty substance on most of its leaves(not on new growth)I am .told its a mould and wash each leaf with soapy water, which to me sounds so time consuming due to the amount affected. I thought to cut back the stems of leaves affected, or even remove the shrub. If I remove it would I be able to plant another plant in same place.Also if I do decide to keep it would it mean the mould would appear in  consecutive years

pansyface

You have to ask yourself what is encouraging the black mould to grow on the leaves.

The answer id that the mould is living on the sweet sugary honeydew that is excreted by aphids.

So what you need to do is to eliminate the aphids.

When you do that you will have a healthy camellia.

Pete.8

As pf says above, you need to remove the cause.
It's likely to be scale insects or possibly aphids.
There's some info from the RHS here (about 1/2 way down the page)
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=771

and info on scale insects here-
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=483