Monrovia Augusta Gardenia in need.

geez, almost a year to the date, I am having another problem with my cherished gardenia. This last month we've been having a lot of much colder weather than usual, as many of you know. So my gardenia (which thanks to Mattadeus' and Smdent's advice last year had made a complete recovery and had 13 buds on it waiting to open) was in the house with me for about a week.
Two days ago, it was fine, resting under my pergola, out of the bitter cold and not too damp. This morning I come out to limp leaves, a strange yellow-green in color and whiteish scales. Black spots too that look like bug waste?? I thought at first it must have gotten too cold the last two nights (48F) but the white scales and the black spots make me think something else may be going on.
Any ideas on what could be the problem here, and what I need to do next?
My poor girl... she had been doing so well. Now my husband wants to call her a zombie because I refuse to stop trying to bring her back from the dead. Ugh! Help please!

you can see one of the buds better here. They seem more shriveled than the other day too, but that may jest be me.

whole plant

I don't think cold has anything to do with it--they are hardy to I think zone 7 or 8, I have two that are outside in the garden and their leaves stayed glossy and green right through our freeze (and it was more frozen over here in the East Bay than it was by you--temps were in the low 20's overnight for about a week, and we've probably had about a month of nights right around freezing). The buds might not survive (mine hasn't had any buds on it since late summer/early fall) but the plant can take the cold just fine.

I can't tell what the stuff on the plant is, hopefully someone else will know, you might try a strong jet of water to hose off whatever it is, that's usually my first approach whenever I see any sort of bugs on my plants. The white stuff might be mealy bugs but I'm not really sure, if that's what it is take a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol and use that to remove them.

And the last pic looks like the leaves are drying up--when you had it in the house did you have it somewhere that it was getting direct warm air from a heating vent blowing on it? Or too close to a source of radiant heat?

Those look like aphid droppings and honeydew. Maybe try spraying it down with a mild insecticidal soap. My outdoor gardenia is in a cold frame (Kleim's Hardy) abutted to my house, but with outdoor night temps at -5 F, the night temp in the cold frame can't be much warmer than 20 F, and it's doing fine.

-Joe

I agree with ecrane- looks like too much dry indoor heat. The only time I have had something look like that due to something other than being indoors was due to spider mites.

Thanks for your tips!

There is still a lot of green, so I think I will spray it down with insecticide and then trim it back... she needs a really healthy pruning anyway.

Is honeydew from a bug? Spidermites are currently the bain of my plumerias existence and the gardenia was in the same room as my upstairs plummie (who is currently sleeping for the winter). So that may be a possibility? I don't have central heating, or a heat source in that room other than the aquarium heater for my terrapin tank on the other side of the room, so I don't think dry heat is my problem. Sigh... wish me luck for her spring transformation!

Honeydew usually comes from aphids or scale, spidermites will sometimes leave webbing on the back side of the leaves and from the top side you can see a mottled yellow pattern. The stuff you show in your picture is on the top of the leaves which means it can't be spider mites, plus I don't see the mottled yellow pattern that's typical of them. If there's no heat source, then I'm not sure what happened to make the leaves dry up and shrivel like they are, most other plants I've seen that look like that it's been because someone had them sitting too close to a heating vent. It could also be the end result of spider mites, but the leaves that are still green don't show any signs of spider mites so I'd be surprised if that was it, I'd expect to see the beginnings of their damage on the green leaves too.

Just discovered the same thing on my beautiful, healthy gardenia....as of about 3 days ago. Now it is a twin to ABarker's. Took it outside thinking to wash it down good and found the "bug". Some sort of mite. I have sprayed it well......drowned the pot so it would drain quickly and it is sitting in the mild winter sun. Will do some pruning later today and give it a little extra tlc. Could not see what was causing the damage until I got it outside. Definitely not from the environment. Now have to inspect all the rest of my plants that am trying to winter over just a little longer. I'm afraid this false spring this week has gotten my blood racing. Don't know what kind of mite.....not aphid.....not mealey bug.

Hi Everybody,

Just saw this thread. My gardenias are 9' tall and planted in the ground. Yall know that gardenias are getting ready to bloom and if you trim now, you won't have as many blooms.

Spray them with any soapy water and give them some ironite and they should green right back up.

Jeri

For those with gardenias in containers, you might consider a systemic. I had all kinds of trouble with bugs on 'Daisy' and 'August Beauty,' particularly over the winter in the GH. This year I treated with imidacloprid (Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub) 2T/gallon when I brought them inside. It doesn't seem to last the whole 12 months, but it substantially reduced pest problems on the gardenias and hibiscus in the GH.

SB

SB, you may have to careful with Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub on containers. I was interested with their product for a while, but it was marketed as outdoor product, not for indoor or containers, I asked them the question, they replied not to use for containers.