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Southern Gardening

More gardenia help - roots good but not drinking and dying

6 years ago

Hi all - I know all about Gardenia suicide - i'm down to two suicides now! I had a really cute August Gardenia from Home Depot it was flourishing and grew to twice its size. Because it was going dry too fast after a few months I decided it needed a bigger pot! BIG MISTAKE! in a few weeks. I noticed it stopped drinking and it looked like it was thirsty (TRULY SUICIDE!). I figured ok this is root rot. I take it apart, I cut the roots that are brown (at this point it only looked like it needed water even though the soil was very damp for days). The big THICK roots were all white. The little hairy ones all brown. SO I put it back in the original size pot which the now trimmed roots fit into. I trimmed back a third of the plant (maybe even more). Some down to just stems to redirect the energy to the roots. And it still is acting thirsty. Not soaking up the water and the leaves are drying. I think these are all heroic measures.. and I've already purchased a replacement (A tahitian gardenia which a Master Gardener recommended). I hope my orchids don't go the same route too. I feel like a killer. Thanks!

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Comments (5)

Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
6 years ago
Please see replies here at the cross post in the Florida Gardening forum.

Gardenia help - replanted some root rot
Helen Marko thanked Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
Helen Marko
Original Author
6 years ago
Yes sorry I couldn't find this original post. Should I remove this?
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For now, I'd leave them. If they want to drop, trust me, they'll drop. Keep the soil damp (not wet, just moist) and back off on the sun for now until they adjust a little better. Gardenias are, unfortunately, extremely touchy plants. But fortunately, they do like sun. Those just look shocked. I've certainly done that when adjusting plants--if you catch them fast enough, they'll usually recover with some TLC. https://www.gardenia.net/guide/learn-how-to-grow-and-care-for-your-gardenia
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Hi Sara, I'm glad to hear you are listening to the advise provided and getting a lot with a drainage hole. Go ahead and pick up some perlite with it for you to mix 50/50 with the C&S soil you got. If you like the look of the terrarium you can achieve a similar look with a wide, shallow terra cotta pot (or any wide shallow lot with proper drainage). You can set up a nice little succulent garden in that. Also, if you don't get good light I recommend getting a lamp to provide some supplemental lighting. I use a compact florescent bulb to get mine through winter. Get the brightest one possible
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Okay, lets be clear; the brown leaves aren't 'diseased" in that the plant doesn't have a disease. It has a pest infestation - different thing - and the pests are causing the brown leaves. Those leaves are just responding to the pest attacking the plant. The plant itself is not harbouring illness. I make this point: to show you that there's nothing actually wrong with the brown leaves, they're a byproduct, an 'indicator', so don't worry about them. You wont get them to turn green again where they've gone brown and cutting off the brown leaves isnt addressing the problem - the pest. So to address your problem: your pest is spidermites. So this looks good to me: http://www.ehow.com/about_6317228_spider-mites-white-gardenias.html I would treat the spidermites as outlined above. Then I'd repot into 511 (bc gardenias are happier in it and by that I mean they are more resistant to disease and pests). I'd also (given the above post and the fact your gardenia is indoors) think about ways to increase humidity (some ppl like misting, or using a pebble/water tray?) and aeration (can it be placed closer to a window?). Make sense?
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It could also be water as you mulched around them which is great but with the overhang of the roof and a sandy soil the root system may have never gotten outside of the pot zone and thus the plants became top heavy. I would prune them back solid, water, and add some composted manure. You could also move them in a last ditch effort.
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Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
6 years ago
No, you don't need to. It's fine to sit right here. The discussion in the Florida Gardening forum is linked. :)

Carol
mbkyle75
6 years ago
It could also be the soil you used to repot it! Last year I bought some Miracle Grow Moisture guard potting soil (which I had used successfully many times before) but this time EVERYTHING I repotted with it died within a week or two. EVERYTHING!!! I've been gardening, indoors and out, for over 40 years and can't remember the last time I lost a plant when repotting! When I went to Scott's/Miracle Gro website to complain I saw SO MANY experienced gardeners with the exact same complaints I had and some insolent, smart aleck customer no-service dweeb would always "reply" saying there was nothing wrong with their product so it had to be "user error". Many of the folks complaining had as much - or more - experience as I had! It was absolutely insulting! I used to believe in their products but won't chance it again. Who knows when there might be another contaminated batch?!? Only good thing is that the patch of invasive English ivy I dumped all the bad soil out onto DIED! (And we all know how hard that stuff is to kill!). Scott's/Miracle Gro lost a good LOOOONG TIME customer because they couldn't admit they might have sent out a bad batch! I know I'm not the only experienced gardener who won't be using them again!
Helen Marko
Original Author
6 years ago
Wow - so then what do you use? I used miracle grow cactus palm pot soil w/ a mix of perlite. I went to high in the pot and drowned it - I'm pretty sure that was the problem. I'm about to throw it out now. I read somewhere how much volume is added when you move up in size. I didn't increase by only an inch. I think with the Tahitian Gardenia I bought I will have them repot that in the nursery. I'm not experienced.

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