Once upon a time, I had a gardenia. It died. Fast forward a number of years: 3-4 months ago I was sent a gardenia by mail. It, of course, is not going great guns and I confess to feeling quite intimidated by the darn plant! It has flowered 3 times although it came with a gazillion buds, most of which have dropped off. The soil does not look terrific, but I am hesitant to change it now. I am totally confused by a post suggested by Mike (2 years ago?) regarding proper soil for a gardenia. Can somebody enlighten me? I am in the peculiar position of living in a retirement community and do not have the ability to start making up my own soil mix. I recognize that commercially available mixes may not be the best choices, but are there one or two that are better than acceptable? I have the proper conditions except for the possibility of too warm a temperature at night in the winter (my husband is always cold). North, east and southern exposures - too dry in the wintertime so I have the plant on pebbles. I would never remember to mist daily. We live near the ocean and therefore have high levels of humidity in the summertime. By the same token, summertime really lasts just 3 to 3-1/2 months: June, July, August and usually the first half of September. I do not know under what conditions the plant may visit the out-of-doors. Once outdoors the shade takes over in the afternoon, probably good lighting for the plant. However, I might forget about it leading to drying out... Any and all suggestions are more than helpful! Thank you.

All my gardenia plants have died after I moved to the mid-West. The soil seems to be poisonous to gardenia - possibly loaded with fatal fungus. My water is commercially softened - it is soft and alkaline - possibly loaded with unusual salts. All my gardenia screamed and dropped died within 1 year. One last branch tried to survive by clinging to a cool wall. But when I repotted it, it died. My fuchsia survived 2 years but it did not make it through the extreme hot summer. I also think there are something, salt or fungus, that helped the death of the beautiful fuchsia plant. People in South-east claim they are rough necks. Gee, they need to come to mid-West to see real rough necks. Are there success gardenia stories from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota? Or, is this a formidable land that Gardenia could not survive?

Hi Jacob, Sorry if I offended you in any way. The thread was NEVER meant to defame you or anybody for that matter. The discussions here are really like informal or casual friendly conversations, asking what one gardener thinks of this plant or this nursery, etc. It's really just a plain friendly conversation, that's all. There are actually threads warning fellow members of this or that nursery because of bad experience. Same with me here. I have bought several red, pink and green gardenias in the past so I warned fellow gardeners of this possibility. Again, let me reiterate the INTENTION was to give guidance to fellow gardeners and to warn them of possibilities like this. IT WAS NEVER MY INTENTION TO DEFAME ANYONE OR ANYBODY. I am a good person and if you look at my other posts you can see I HAVE NEVER DEFAMED ANYBODY OR ANYONE. Defamation is never part of my intention or reason why I joined gardenweb. I'm sure the other posters who participated in this thread will agree that once in a while, we do get violent reactions and misunderstandings here in this forum. Discussions like these are typical in the internet forums and most of them get really very informal. The posters usually don't post formally like when they are interviewed in national tv or a newspaper of national circulation. If these posts were to be publicized in national tv or national newspaper, then many here wouldn't offer friendly advice against this or that nursery anymore for fear they'll be sued for libel or slander. Please interpret these posts as nothing but casual or friendly talk or conversation because they really are just that. Again, let me reiterate they are not meant in any way to defame or offend you or anybody. Take for instance this gardenweb thread which questions if apples can really grow in tropical countries. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg022136365436.html The poster probably felt more comfortable raising it in a forum and soliciting for answers where she has already friends rather than asking the person directly through email. She may not feel comfortable to a one-on-one conversation. The owner of the apple may be offended because of the thread questioning her ability to grow apples in a tropical climate. She may feel offended because she may interpret the thread as insinuating her blog as a 'fraud'. But really, it is not the intention of that post and it is the same with this thread. I hope you understand things like this happen because of the nature of the internet and the gardenweb forum. Let's get this thing behind us, ok? Gardenweb administrator, if you are reading this thread, please delete this thread now including all photo links so there would be no more further controversies/misunderstandings, etc. tropical

Well, I am sad to say my gardenia AND two camellias are likely done for. The odds were stacked against me-- a) I planted too late b) DFW heat is murdering them c) as a beginner gardener, I'm just not skilled enough yet to handle high maintenance plants. Especially since they're new plantings and d) trying to establish those types of shrubs in this heat was unwise. They did fine at first. I used good soil, the right fertilizer and food, appropriate watering, checked for pests/disease everyday. What finally sealed their doom was my dear lovely husband doing his part by manning the irrigation system. He input the start time for every single zone (8 in total) instead of just one start time for the first zone and the system tried to go through the irrigation cycle 8 times! I caught it when I got up in the morning and realized the sprinklers were STILL going (had them set to start at 5am). The overwatering murdered the gardenia and camellias. Gardenia is turning yellow again and losing leaves. Camellia developed leaf gall, root rot or both plus sun scald from getting a bit too much western sun. I'm not happy about losing these beautiful shrubs but I knew I was taking a risk with them, especially as a beginner. But it was a good test. I have a small variety of plants that range from super-low maintenance to very high. It was a good learning experience but I know that for now, I don't think I want to mess with those kinds of plants. Creating and maintaining the delicate balance of elements these shrubs need is just not something I think I want to mess with yet. Meanwhile, I'm having better success with my Texas sages, abelia, crossvine, star jasmine, angelonia, creeping rosemary and kalanchoe. So I'm out of the gardenia and camellia game (for now). But after some time and learning, I'm sure I'll revisit them again. I am determined to have at least one shrub that produces gorgeous, elegant, velvety white blooms.