New Gardenia, Need Advice.

Hi all,

I recently received a 4ft tall gardenia as a housewarming gift from my mother. It had many beautiful, fragrant blooms on it when it was bought from the farmers market. I had left it in the front of our house (east facing) for about 5 days before transplanting. for those 5 days it continued to produce many new blooms. HOWEVER, i went to the store and bought a large pot, soil and fertilizer based on the recommendation of the "plant guy" working there. (one large bag of loose soil plus one small bag of topsoil and fertilizer that says it is for azaleas). anyway, once i transplanted and moved it to my back porch (west facing) the inner leaves started to yellow and the buds fell.....i thought this might just be stress from moving it, but a month has passed and i have not seen much improvement. the leaves seem to be slowing down on the yellowing, but there are not many new buds and the ones that do form aren't opening. (there have been 2 buds on there for about 2 weeks, that have done nothing). i water it almost daily (when i see the top soil looking dry) and have tried adding coffee grounds to the soil based on something i read. I would hate to kill this plant. i am wondering if it is better for it to be in the ground (in central FL), rather than in a pot. please help!

here is a picture...

a droopy bud and yellow leaf :(

and buds that won't bloom

You are watering it too much. Gardenias are very tempermental. Only water them when they "ask" for water; in other words, let the soil dry out COMPLETELY - the leaves will just start to droop - then thoroughly soak the soil. Do not water again until they once more, ask you for water...

Also, it may have liked the East facing side better. Again, this all has to do with them being a diva of a plant.

thanks!! i was told they like a lot of water so i never though that was the problem....i will watch the leaves from now on. do you think it would do better in the ground....we have very sandy soil that drains well...or would it be worse to try and move it again? i think it definitely liked the front of the house better...got lots of morning sun. but i couldn't enjoy the wonderful fragrance from there....however i cant enjoy it now either :(

I always have mine in a pot and it does fine- it's just that I'm in Zone 6, so when I bring it inside for the winter, it never makes it thanks to spider mites and a very picky distinction for needing the absolute perfect amount of light *sigh* I always end up having to get a new one each year, but it's always happy until it has to come inside....

Hi julil, I love gardenias. I've had at least one in every home we've lived in; always in a pot because we were a military family. Now that my husband is retired I had our landscaper plant two in front of the house. After transplanting the leaves turned yellow. I really thought they weren't going to make it. I bought some blood meal and sprinkled a little around the roots and watered well. After about 2 weeks I noticed that most of the leaves were green. Last week both plants had massive blooms....ah, I love the fragrance of gardenias!

I have noticed that they prefer bright filtered light when indoors (no direct sunlight). I've had them in eastward and westward windows and they flourished.

DMileski: good to know...after adjusting the water, like suggested above, i am still having problems. i am considering planting in the ground and trying the blood meal. did you add it just once, or is it something you must do continually?

Was wondering if you have had any luck with your gardenia "issues". As like you , no matter what I do, My indoor gardenia plant seems to be getting worse and worse. I've watered, dries out, changed windows, vitamins, acid supplement, and talked to it!!!! Nothing is working. First the buds refused to open, then they all fell off, now the leaves are wrinkled , brown and also falling off. Gardenia Gert looks anemic.

The radio gardening guy says they want very high humidity so using a dry cleaning plastic bag hoisted over stakes would work but don't allow the plastic to touch the leaves.

plantfailure: i kind of gave up..... we had a dry spell and i was following the advice of watering letting leaves droop and watering again, but that didnt get me too far....was still having problems. then we got a bunch of rain for about 2 weeks straight and i thought "great, it is going to get even worse" but i didnt!! it stopped yellowing and actually started sending out new shoots. so i dont know! when i water a lot it turns yellow and drops, when i dont water a lot it does the same. im just going to let the sprinklers and rain do their job and whatever happens happens!! maybe i will transplant to the ground, but im still not sure on that. as for the humidity...we are in FL so that is definitely NOT the problem :)