French, gardenias are very temperamental as I'm sure you know. Everytime I've got a new one, and re pot them, they drop buds and have a few yellow leaves. I think that's normal for them. Hopefully your gardenia is doing better in the new location. Mine was in our bedroom at first, right in front of a south-east window. It was there all winter and did just about 'ok'. I just moved it to the livingroom, slightly off to the side of a southern window, where it gets dappled afternoon sun, and now it's loaded up with buds. So a small change like that can definitely help. Air circulation will definitely help so try to keep a window open where the plant is. If your gardenia is still yellowing, then there is something else wrong I guess- maybe the amount you're watering or check for bugs. How often are you watering? I just re potted mine into an unglazed 8" clay pot (was in a 6" plastic before) and I'm noticing in the last month or so that it's needing a LOT of water. I don't know if it's the new pot or the weather change or perhaps a combination of both but it's doing really well since I've increased watering. I agree with Toni- gardenias love misting. You can use just plain old water if you wish- but like Toni, I am paranoid about mites and use drops of neem oil in the water when I mist. I don't think you can mist too much (unless you get really gung-ho and do it multiple times a day)- so mist as often as you can. I used to do it every day but now I'm too lazy and maybe 2-3 times a week. It doesn't matter if you do it when you're watering or not. Just, in the winter, remember not to do it in the evenings when it starts getting cold and remember not to put them in direct sun right after misting.

Hi. Phals are easy plants, but you do need to prevent certain common disasters of which crown rot is a major one. Misting is not needed and can cause rots to start. These happen very fast, so take care with misting, especially in such high humidity. The culture notes at Robert Bedard Orchids is a good discussion of why phals are so susceptible to crown rots, and how to prevent it-- mostly by keeping air circulating. The link to that discussion is below. After a couple of instances of rots on orchids, I quit misting altogether. My phals thrived all winter in a basement light room with humidity around 50% max, ranging down to about 30%, and no misting. Wetting the floor raises humidity right away. I agree with richard, that such high humidity as you have in your greenhouse is a perfect environment for all sorts of bad stuff. You need a fan going in your greenhouse. Cut the fertilizer to 1/4 for orchids. You won't get a different answer to your question here or anywhere else. The instructions on your fertilizer container are probably giving generic advice. Orchid roots are specialized to take in nutrients in minute amounts. For that reason, they are easily poisoned. Overfertilizing can kill a plant, a slow lingering death. Better to under than over. You can easily find out what the 20-14-13 means, and you should, but you will have to cut it to 1/4 for orchids. You will get excellent growth from a 1/4 dilution. Go to the Dyna-Grow website, and you can find out all about fertilizers. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: phal culture discussion

Last I knew, which WAS a few years ago, the man who had been buying Paulownia logs for timber in this area had stopped buying them - the market in the Far East had disappeared, or prices had dropped too far. My info is second-hand, so I may be wrong. I don't think there is a market for it, specifically, as a fine timber tree in the US. As a pulp tree, or as a wood-chip tree, then probably you could sell them. While paulownia is a valued wood in antique Chinese furniture, and is quite lovely in the examples I saw while living in San Francisco, my understanding is that the wood was from "old growth' forests, not from rapidly-grown, modern wood - we ARE talking about antiques here. I have a feeling that the caveats expressed above are valid - this particular tree would be sterile IF there were no other Paulownia trees near-by. After all, when the dreaded Bradford pear was first grown, it was though to be sterile. It turned out to be self-sterile, but quite compatible with other ornamental pear cultivars - hence the forests of Bradford pears springing up!

The same thing happened last year with Naughty Nick. I am hoping now that its a year older it will do better this fall. Mine were snapping off in the wind sometimes right before they opened. Really ticked me off like you said to see so many and never get to see them fully open. Our early frost messed me up or I think they would have done better.