Are they in shade in the afternoon? They should be. If they are, you will probably be alright. I wouldn't spray that in our hottest months. Try gentle ordinary dish soap from the dollar store, something basic, NOT Dawn, diluted in water instead. Apply it at night, so it has some time to work. OR you could use Organicide, by diluting it and spraying at night. That way, you can spray the foilage if you want at around 10 am, so it dries out through out the day.

If you don't have shade for the gardenia in the afternoon, shade it with something so it doesn't burn. Seriously, use anything you can think of, an unbrella, another plant that is taller mabey, anything.

Thank you for that advice. Although they are partially shaded in the afternoon I went ahead and shaded one with an umbrella and they look fine this morning. Fewer yellow leaves so I am hoping that we are on our way back to health. I plan on spraying it again (in the late evening this time) in 5 days. Do you think the dish soap will be strong enough since it is so hot. I have looked at the plant and cannot find any actual pests so I do not know what I am actually fighting but this morning was the least amount of new yellow leaves in about a week. These are the 2nd set of gardenia's I have planted, the first 2 started with the yellow leaves and I thought it was a soil issue. I tried EVERYTHING suggested here in GW but lost them by the end of the summer. We have had gardenia's in this yard in the past with no trouble so now I think it was a pest issue last time and am hoping I have finally found something to save them. IF these two die again I will be coming back to GW looking for suggestions for other fragrant summer blooming bushes - will just give up on the beloved gardenia!

Gigi,

I think they will be fine for you. I wouldn't spray them at all anymore. Stop spraying them for awhile, yellow leaves aren't anything to get upset about anyway. Just make sure that when they are dry, they receive some water, that's all. Keep them mulched well, and watch for lack of water, it's sooo hot now, I try to water at least once a week in the morning if we didn't get rain.

Gardenias are very hardy plants. You can kill them with kindness, seriously, so just make sure when its really hot that they receive some shade in the afternoon, they really appreciate it.

At the end of the summer, you will see it gets alot of yellow leaves again, don't panic, that is normal. Yellow isn't bad, it usually has to do with watering issues, it's brown leaves that are bad. If you drown the gardenia, it will turn brown on the inside and work it's way up, that means you are killing it with too much water.

Remember, they are hardy shrubs.

It has lost most of its leaves now and what is left is all yellow. it may have been the full sun it gets from 10:30 to about 3 that killed it. The one on the NE corner is doing fine although it may not get ENOUGH sun to get it to bloom well. But atleast it is still alive and green. Once it drops all of its leaves - is it dead?