Nonbryan, There is nothing a gardenia hates more than being stuck in a pot. You live in a warm zone, so you must put it back in the garden. Before you do, find a nice spot for it around a tree, so it will get some afternoon shade, for the really hot months. If the shade is around 2pm til dusk, it would be perfect. Then, add some soil conditioner and some composted manure (or a little peat moss if you can't find soil conditioner) to the native soil and mix in it real good. Take the plant, rinse the roots off and plant it in the hole with your ammended soil. If you have red clay soil, plant the gardenia up on a little mound of your ammended soil so the plant sits higher up for good drainage. Don't feed it for one month. You just stressed it out. Mulch, mulch, mulch it good, but don't let the mulch touch the stem of the plant itself. Water it good after transplanting. Then don't water it again for a week. You'll kill it by overwatering it very easily. DOn't spray the water directly on the plant ever. Water in morning only once a week, spraying water on the bottom of the plant. In one month, which will be beginning of May, fertilize with Miracle Grow azela and Rhodo fertilizer. Half strength. A little goes a long way. It will get yellow leaves after you transplant it, that is normal. DOn't panic, it reacts to stress that way. Stop fertilizing in September, so that will be it's last meal. If you need more mulch by then, add some more for the winter. Placing a water feature like a little fountain nearby the gardenia will help provide humidity, unless it is humid where you live. Gardenias aren't hard to grow in the ground at all. Good luck to you, and I hope your wife is happy this summer with it. (by the way, you can get what you need for the soil and food at HD)

I thought I'd add that the best fertilizer for irises is one with very low nitrogen (first number should be low). Bone meal is a good choice. I also sprinkled epson salt around in my iris and daylily beds this year since it helps them take in the magnesium and sulphur they need to stay healthy and disease resistant. Since I live in Middle TN where we have a lot of warm humid weather, I will also begin a fungicide regimen in the spring to help keep my irises and daylilies leaf spot free. Good luck with your irises. Cathy

I was having some of those same problems earlier this season with bud drop. It turned out to be stinkbugs who inject thier saliva into the vines and flower stems while sucking the juices out of the plant. Here are a few common causes of bud drop: Both stink bugs and thrips (very tiny whitish bugs that get into the flower buds) can cause bud drop. (open up one of the buds that fall and look for tiny little bugs=thrips. Stink bugs will be hiding in the vines and can be green or brownish in color and are shaped like shields). -Too much water ~(have this problem sometimes here when it rains alot)- the roots stay wet and the soil therefore compacts and when the roots can't get enough oxygen, the plant will drop its buds. Make sure you have lots of drain holes in your pots and check with your fingers or a water meter several inches down before adding more water. Also a well-draining soil mix is important, I use half cactus soil to 1/2 potting soil (MG) and several handfulls of perlite mixed in. -Too little water (as you already know) - Extreme heat: more than the plant is used to will sometimes cause bud drop especially if it is already stressed. There are probably some more I cant think of right now, so I hope someone else will comment. Good luck ~SJN

So the small ones had NO visible old wood when the season started?? This is not possible unless someone (e.g. friend, relative, neighbor, animal or landscaper) removed it. The old canes simply do not dissolve or disappear. There could also be different soil conditions in the area. Try spent coffee grounds or high-phosphorus fertilizer to encourage more blooms. Also, winter kill is winter kill. The closer the plant dies to the ground the worse it will bloom. The big shrubs look like they're close to a building. The closer to a warm structure, the better off they will survive winter. Hudrangeas differ greatly across the species too. Some can bloom on current year's growth (from the ground) and some only bloom on old wood. If all of your plants are a kind that bloom primarily on old wood, try raking leaves over them and leave the piles there all winter and part of spring until danger of frost has passed. This will protect both the stems and next year's flower buds. And do not cut off/down any old canes until around Memorial Day, as here might be a chance they are not dead yet.