Thank you, Al! Yes, that's it exactly! If I'm not entirely sure a plant needs watering, I wait an extra day or two. I'd rather the medium get a little bit too dry than too wet. Dry can be corrected with a good soaking, but wet is wet, and only time and the evaporation process can correct it. Wicking... inserting wicks into your pots before planting them, and letting them dangle out the drainage holes... can help draw out any excess water that might sit perched. Again, Al can explain exactly how they work, but the idea is to fool the water into thinking it can go further, that there's more medium to saturate... or at least, I think that's the idea. :-) I have not used wicking as of yet, but I do intend to in some of the larger planters I'll be filling this year. If I'm off base on any issues, I apologize... I only want to offer help in the form of what I've learned and the experiences I've had. What I do know for a certainty is that the concept of a larger particulate used as a planting medium is very sound... especially when we understand the exact purposes medium serves, and what happens under the soil surface where roots are concerned. Healthy roots make for healthy plants!

This also happened to me Last year. My Apricot tree budded small Apricots about the size of a Nickel all over the tree. I went out a week or so later and they Vanished. They did not drop as Nothing was on the ground beneath the tree. Not so much as a trace of one . This year I brought two witnesses and took pictures and video of the new buds which are as before. If they Vanish this time I’m calling the National Enquirer .

Thanks for your input, Dave. When I first got the gardenia, it was extremely hard to water. I watered it and the water spilled straight out the hole at the bottom, yet the soil stayed dry. So I soaked it much like you suggest. That did help renew the absorption of the soil, but eventually, the same problem came back. So, I do think the soil it is in has something to do with the troubles my gardenia has been having. I should also mention that I had tiny black flies around it and some leaves had small holes. I started handpicking the flies, but it was impossible to get rid of them all, although I managed to keep the population down to just a few. Now that the plant is showing new growth, there are no flies around it anymore. This is a great mystery to me as I did not do anything to fix the fly issue except for handpicking them. I think the light level in that window is already optimal for a gardenia kept as a houseplant. It is quite close to full sun as the only sun that doesn't shine through it is the sinking evening sun. As for humidity, I believe we have a balanced atmosphere, not humid but not dry either (probably around 50%). Does the gardenia need more wet than that? And if so, do you think misting could fix it? I am training it now to live on only one watering per day. So far so good. I still give it as much water but in one big dose and not two small ones. But I think that the soil is wrong and the waterings will never really achieve their goal. The plant does have slight buildup/deficiency symptoms (two-tone leaves). I have been using tapwater that stayed on the counter for a day to let the chlorine evaporate, but it isn't enough as there is also fluoride in the water which doesn't evaporate. So your guess about salt buildup sounds very plausible to me. Do you know if there is anything I can do to correct this? Obviously, I would have to change the soil, but the new soil would also be prone to buildups after a while, right? I am thinking it may be a good idea to transplant it and sacrifice the half-dozen buds it has now. Better to go without flowers for a little while than lose the plant out of fear for the flowers... I have an eight-inch clay pot. Would that be large enough? Also, since this is a plant that likes humidity, wouldn't it be better off in plastic? Thanks again for your help. P.S.: I also have an orchid in the same window, the kind that likes to be root-bound. The leaves are pretty (no browning at the tips) and it is blooming twice as much as when I bought it. I believe orchids like more or less the same conditions as gardenias. So, if the orchid is doing great in that environment and the gardenia is not doing that great, my guess is that the problems it has been having are not related to heat, light and humidity, but rather to the soil, the water and/or the pot. Does that make sense?

Hai, Jasmine lovers. I have about 7 or 8 varities of Jasmines 3 of them in the ground and rest of them in pots. I live in San Antonio, TX which gets enough hot in summer as in India. I take care of them very well by protecting them in winter and all, my problem is that I see cluster of buds but they turn purple or brown and drop off before they bloom. even the flowers which bloom are not healthy. I feed them with slow releasing fertilizer and with super bloom during the blooming season. However, since the soil here is alkaline I add little bit of Miracid once a month.I water them as needed every two days when there is no rain the plants in the ground have automatic sprinkler which is activated 2 times week or when needed. What am I doing wrong so that they are not flowering as they used to. I used to get plenty of flowers. From past two years I am not getting flowers as I used to get. The plants look luscious and healthy. I changed potting soil and all. Some one please please help me with this. These are my babies. I had these plants from so many years.