Specialty Gardening: Are there any easy Gardenias?, 1 by Aslan89

Aslan89 wrote:
It's been so long since this thread was active I just couldn't resist seeing how everyones gardenias are doing?

I attached a picture of the 'First Love' I picked up at HD today. I could not believe how big it! I had back luck with a smaller one I found at Lowe's last year. Planted it into a pot that was too large, it stayed very wet, the roots rotted out :/

My august beauty is doing just fine now, It seems to want to grow out more than up though. It was the host of a personal science project I did after taking a plant physiology course and was treated with GA3 and almost immediately all the branches extended a foot or more and it has failed to grow up since. For those who may not be familiar, GA3 is a plant hormone that promotes, among other things, stem elongation. Anyway, its about 40 feet wide and only about 1 to 1 1/2 feet tall :p

Back to my picture though, I tend to have good luck with potting gardenias, rather than planting them out around the yard because our soil has a pH around 7-7.5 which just won't do for gardenias. The august beauty was my first exception to that rule around here because I dug a hole that was probably twice as big as the pot and used a half and half mix of sphagnum peat moss and MG garden soil. The big difference most likely being the peat moss which will keep the pH down for a good while (I used a lot)

Any suggestions? I prefer the sphagnum approach so I don't have to deal with soil acidifier chemicals or mixes.

Oh btw, MG 'quick start' is excellent for transplanting any and everything. Water it once or twice with that and I never see transplant shock anymore. Super Thrive is a new favorite of mine as well, and I see people claim it doesn't work all the time but after studying plants in college for years now I can say that it does. I have done my own experiments to show what a change it can make. It does actually have plant hormones in it as well, so I can say without a doubt that it does work!

WOW sorry for the long post, plants always get me excited :)