Gardenia

Oh! That’s lovely! Pure white. :)

I can smell it from here.

Bathgate:

It looks excellent! It's so green! What do you feed it?

My Gardenia vietnamensis is turning yellow.

Thanks Andy! They are acid loving plants - good rich compost & I mix in used tea bags & coffee grounds. You can also make a simple epsom salt foliage spray solution which give fast results.

I actually foliar fed my Gardenia about two weeks ago with epsom salt. I think it needs to be done again. I'm going to give it some liguid chelated iron. I gave it chelated pellet iron which doesn't seem to work as well.

I foliar fed (with epson salt) my 6' tall Gardenia thunbergia and the leaves are really dark green now. It's not flowering yet. It's a summer, fall bloomer, though.

OK that sounds good. The epsom salt foliar spray is just a temporary fix until the soil ph is right. Seems like you know what you're doing Andy. I hope you get lots of blooms. That's a gorgeous plant and I love the singles.

Thanks! :>)

Gardenia thubergia grows into a 25' tall tree here.

I know the soil ph has to be lowered. It's too high here.

25' sounds spectacular. I wish I can grow one that big. Do you drink coffee or tea? That's a good way to recycle them. Do you have any conifers growing nearby? Sprinkle a couple handfuls of pine needles around the base of your gardenia about every year. You can also look for a conifer log and just lay it at the base of the gardenia. That's good for several years - will slowly feed your gardenia as it decomposes.

Perfectly grown.

I always feed Epsom salts in early Spring to the roses. Supposed to love it. I have noticed more blooms when I remember. I wonder what would happen if I sprayed the leaves. am hopeless with gardenias. Yours is beautiful.

Bathgate:

I don't drink coffee. I do drink tea. I have used the tea bags around my plants for years. It does help.

I used to have a gorgeous coffee tree for many years (I used to put tea bags under it). It succumbed to the drought, unfortunately. :>)) It used to bear tons of coffee and flower like crazy! The flowers, of course, smell a lot like Gardenia, as they're in the same family.

Here's a pic:

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/74710-coffea-arabica-coffee-tree/all

I drink loads of tea as well. Hope it helps your gardenia.

I planted my Gardenia vietamensis is a lot of acidic soil with a lot of Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla) needles from my 85' tree. It should be doing better...not sure why it's not. Some of the top yellow leaves fell off.

Can you possibly post a picture of your gardenia?

Bathgate:

Here's the Gardenia vietnamensis in my front yard. It's gotten more chlorotic, though. It has buds on it right now, also.

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/334927-gardenia-vietnamensis-vietnamese-gardenia-flower/member/Delonix1

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/334256-gardenia-vietnamensis-vietnamese-gardenia/member/Delonix1