Question
My camilla is growing but each year for past several springs a black cover appears on leaves--looks like someone sprayed it. It doesn't seem to hurt the plant but is unsightly. The bush is about 20 years old. It blooms and thrives but seems to be loosing a lot of leaves especially this year.

Answer
Marion:
Using a wet paper towel, see if the black stuff will wipe off a black leaf or two.  If so, this may be a condition called sooty mold.  Sooty mold is an indicator of an insect infestation on that particular plant or one above it.

Read about sooty mold in an article I have written.  It is a pdf file, so you will need a small free program on your computer called Adobe Reader.  You can find it in Google search.

The article is at http://www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/publications/PDF/FSA-7555.pdf

If you have any difficulty, let me know and I can email the article to you directly.

Regards
Steve