Flower and bud falling off

Hi!
I bought a Silver Jenny "Allamanda" 2 weeks ago (the name of which I only learned from here) and it's grow may be two to three inches now... I'm all happy, but for the past five days I noticed that whenever a flower blooms, it falls off the next day and the next day or two, the next bud falls off the plant. This has happened twice and has made me concerned about them. Is the plant missing something? Sunlight... Water... Fertilizer...? Can anyone help?
BTW, the plant gets direct sunlight for about 2 hours, and for the rest, it's the shade... So any suggestions?

This message was edited Jul 6, 2008 11:12 PM

It could be just adjusting to its new home...I've had my allamanda forever so I can't remember how it behaved when it was new, but the whole thing of bringing it home from the store and putting it in a new environment could have stressed it a little, but hopefully within a couple weeks it should stop dropping buds if that's the only thing that's going on.

I don't know if this would cause bud drop or not, but I do think it would probably like a bit more sun. Allamandas are typically full sun plants, although if your climate is really hot maybe they'd do OK with some shade in the afternoon, but I suspect it would do better with more than 2 hrs of sun. But don't just go throw it in a sunny area--if it's used to being in a lot of shade you need to adjust it gradually to being in more sun or else it'll sunburn.

It also never hurts to check up on your watering since watering issues are probably one of the more common things that can go wrong with plants. Inconsistent moisture levels can cause some plants to drop their buds. So if it's getting bone dry, then you drown it in water, then let it get bone dry again, etc that could stress it, maybe don't let it dry out quite as much in between. Or if it's getting really dry in between and you're just watering it a little bit, sometimes that won't do a good job rewetting the potting mix, so a lot of the water just drains through without really getting absorbed by the soil. What I would do is right before the next time you were planning to water, stick your finger down a couple inches into the pot--if it feels really dry then I'd increase your watering frequency a bit, but if it still feels pretty wet then you're probably watering a little too frequently. And when you do water, make sure you give it a good thorough soaking so that it gets wet all the way through. I'd also check if the plant is rootbound or not--I can't see the pot in your picture so can't guess if it's too small or not, but with rootbound plants it becomes very difficult to get them the amount of water they really need.

Hi there!

Thanks a lot for the suggestions . For an amateur like me they're great tips. Here, the city where I live in (India), the temperature is constantly about 80 deg. F and at times may go upto 90 deg. F and also the humidity is about 78% here. Also I'm not sure if it's wise to replant it as it's not potted but in the ground. May be I should check on my watering cycles and amount of water. As you said sometimes I water early in the evenings like around 5:00 PM, and sometimes I do it at 8:00 PM, so may be I should make it a standard time may be.

Here's a full screenshot of the beauty (It's still very small)...

If it's in the ground and you just planted it a couple weeks ago that may be the problem right there--planting is a little stressful for plants, so they'll often drop flowers/buds since they know they ought to be working on developing their roots instead. So I'd give it a little time to settle in before you worry too much. And with shrubs, I've found that sometimes they will even take a whole year off from blooming while they get established, so as long as the plant continues to look healthy I wouldn't worry too much if it doesn't bloom, it should get back to it eventually unless it really does need full sun to bloom.

I would definitely check the watering even though the plant looks fine, it's something that's very easy to check and watering too much or too little is a very common thing even for experienced gardeners, and the sooner you realize you're doing it and fix it the better off the plant will be.

Also, this probably doesn't relate to your bud drop at all, but something else you may want to think about--in a humid climate it's generally not recommended to water in the evenings since then if you get any water on the leaves, they can stay wet for a longer time and that can encourage fungal growth. It's better to water in the morning so then the water on the leaves evaporates more quickly and there's not as much chance of fungus.

Thanks a lot for reassurance, as I thought the plant was not healthy with its flowers and buds dropping, but anyways, I should try watering it only in mornings then and observe. Now, how about the Jasmine creeper and Ixora plants? I read that they prefer moist soil, so should I water them only once or twice a day? Have attached the pic of the Jasmine Crepper as I'm not sure what it's common name is (we locally call it Nityamalli in regional language and I couldn't find its common name online - may be it's te Pink Jasmine? Not sure) This was also planted the same day as Allamanda.

For any of your plants I'd do the finger test to decide how often to water. I can't tell you water once a day or twice a day or some other frequency because there are so many variables that go into it...how well does your soil drain, how hot is it, how sunny is the area, etc. For plants that say they like to be moist, they probably still don't want to be soaking wet, so unless your soil is extremely sandy I'd be surprised if these things are planted in the ground and need to be watered twice a day given that the area only gets a couple hours of sun. So next time you were planning to water, stick your finger down a couple inches and see how it feels--if it's sopping wet then you need to wait a while before watering, if it feels moist but not soaking then I'd probably wait and check again later to make sure things don't get too dry, and if it feels just a little bit damp then I'd go ahead and water.