Hi Everyone - Please help
I just bought a beautiful flowering Oleander. The problem is only two mature buds opened, all the others just withered and fell off. What could be the problem?
Many thanks!
Nerium Oleander - falling flower buds
They need normal humidity,half day sun,and water when dry to the touch.Some buds fall even in the greenhouse, but if most fall off then something is wrong with the conditions.
Kyle
Can you tell us a little more about where you have the plant, how much light it gets, how often you've been watering, etc?
Thank you so much for your feedback.
Ecran3, the plant is located on a South facing window sill and gets about 4-5 hours of direct sunlight. Water - I usually water when medium becomes dry.
Fertilizer - Since transplanting into a new pot, which is one size larger than the old pot, I have not given it any fertilizer
Potting mix - I used cactus mix for drainage with peatmoss.
Pot - Regular plastic pot - 6"
Size of plant - It is a very small plant
Environment - please note that it shares the same space as my gardenia, which is flowering and is in good condition. Also, it is not far away from my heating vent.
Many thanks,
Charmaine
This message was edited Apr 11, 2007 6:32 AM
Did the buds drop shortly after transplanting? Some plants will do that because transplanting puts them under a little stress, so they'll drop the flowers so that they can concentrate on roots and leaves instead.
Is there hot air from the heating vent that blows on the plant at all? Most (all?) plants won't like that, while it may enjoy being warm it's not good to have the air blowing directly on it.
And the last possibility is overwatering--I know you say you don't water until the mix is dry, but are you checking that by looking at the top of the soil or by actually sticking your finger a few inches down in the soil? Especially since you say it's a very small plant that you moved into a 6" pot, the roots are likely not taking up a ton of space in the pot and will be pretty slow to absorb the water that you've put in there. The top of the soil may look dry (especially if you're getting some air from the heating vent), but a few inches down it may still be soggy.
Yes, the buds did started falling off after transplanting into a bigger pot.
Yes, hot air that is coming from the air vents. However, my gardenia is in the same location, and it is doing fine, except some of the buds turned yellow and fell off. I tried increasing humidity by daily misting and have seen an immediate improvement.
Thank you very much for the feedback.
I still think shock from transplanting is a big potential culprit, so as long as it seems healthy otherwise it's probably fine where it is and once it's settled in its new container hopefully it'll start blooming again. I would make sure though that it's not getting direct hot air, due to the way the air flows it's possible that it's getting more hot air blowing on it than the gardenia is even though they're in the same general area. Misting will help but if there's too much hot air blowing on it the plant will still not be as happy as it could be.