what is happening????????

here is a pic of a bud from my gardenia plant. this seems to be happening to all the buds. i just got this plant about 3 months ago. please help i really want blooms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats why i bought the darn plant, oh no! i should'nt have said that the plant might hear me and drop all of it's leaves and die on me! i heard that these plants are very hard to keep alive is this really true? if it is i think i will go and kiss my plants and tell them i'm sorry, just a concerned parent. so if you have any expeirience with this please HELP!

Your pic is a bit blurry, it looks like maybe there are aphids on it? If there are enough of them they could do some damage to the flower buds. I think your climate should be pretty good for them (the gardenias, not the aphids...although pretty much any climate is good for aphids!). I always have trouble because they don't like heat and lack of humidity, but since you're in a cooler climate I would think it should be easier to keep them happy. Maybe not though!

ecrane3, thanks yeh i know the pic is a bit blurry i only have a cell phone to use. i looked at the pic again and those tiny brown specks are acually potting soil. there isn't any bugs on it. another question, can i keep these outside during the winter? we do get a lot of snow, and the temps do get bellow zero sometimes. the guy at the store sais i could if i covered them is this true?

Yvette.... Do you have your plant out in the full sun by any chance? Gardenias need to be in the shade. They just can't take the full sun and no afternoon sun at all.

That looks like a burn of some sort. First gues s the sun. Second gues s fetilizers or some sort of spray.
They not hard to keep if you keep them in the shade, keep them moist by not wet and keep at an acidic soil level.

And I think they're hardy to zone 7, I think if I'm not mistaken Spokane would be zone 8 so I think you'd be OK. Wouldn't hurt to doublecheck though! Also, starlight1153 has a good thought about it maybe getting too much sun, but in your cooler summer climate I think it could take some sun, just maybe not quite full sun.

thanks guys, i went looking on the web to find info. and a lot of it scared me! so i called a local nursery, the lady said that this is typical when the plants are moved from one environment to another. at the nursery they have a perfect environment, then when moved, they suffer a little shock. another thing might be over/under water. i will be keeping an eye out for them. try and find out what they like best. by the way they are getting mornning sun till about noon. i have them facing the east. it may also be the VERY HOT temps lately, it's been in the 100's for about 2 weeks now! one more question, have any of you tried to root cuttings from gardenias? i just, (with trembling hands) cut back my older plant to make it more compact. i just put the 18 cuttings in cups of water till i know what to do with them.

You can take your cuttings if you want and put your cups in a window wher e ya get some light but not burnign sun and they wil root alot faster in the wate r than in a pot. Then when you have a good system of roots going you can plant then in pots. if I get a chanc e wil try and get out to show ya a bunch of seedling from cuttings. We suppose d to be havign rain and I praying it comes.

Just make sure ya take a few sets of the bottom leave s off and don't have any othe r leave s sittign in the water. If ya got a uart Mason jar. It works great for rootign a bunch of Gardenia cuttinngs at one time.

And I thought you guys had cool summers for some reason! It's been a lot cooler than that here, I'm surprised to hear you guys get over 100. They should be happy with the morning sun typically, could just be a bit of heat/water stress from the heat wave but hopefully they'll recover quickly when it cools off.

starlight1153, thanks for your addvice. i didn't know wether or not to put them all in one container so split them up between 6 tall cups. how long does it take to see any roots formming? and is there something i need in the water? last question, should i change the water? yes/ how often?..........ecrane3........yeh, it gets pretty hoy around here during summer, this year a little hoter than normal. usually we stay in the upper 80's & 90's. but when winter comes..burrrrrr! cold.

I would split them up and only put thre e to a container. The reason for this is that it gives them plenty of room to strech their roots when they start growing and it eaier to change the water and to many plants all in one pot will suck up the nutrients and oxygen in the air pretty quick.

I usually change the water every three days and I do not ad d anythign to the water. Takes a couple of months for them to root. Once rooted and potte d it takes a good three years before ya have a seedling about feet tall. They are slow growers from cuttings. They are a shrub that you need to have alot of patience for in waitign to grow up.

Gonan try in a bit an see if I can unload my camera and post. I have lot s of problems tryign to unload and upload. My puters thows fits.

Ok gonan try and giv e this photo bit a shot. I grow the minature spreadign and the upright shrub variety.

First photo. These are seedlings that were started last year in water in mason jars. They just got stepped up from " pots to one gallons a few weeks ago.

I not the best photo person in tryign to get close up's sorry. heck I not a phot person at all. LOL

another close up of seedling so ya can se e about how many leaves to have

Three year old seedlings in one gallon pots that desperately nee d transplante d to gallons which I wil do her e shortly for the winter.

These guys stay in the shade under a huge old Hickory tree and I have to water them everyday in the heat.

If you don't have any mason jars you can use regular clear glasses. Just make sure they big enough and tall enough and if ya cna place them in a kitchen window where they get morning sun.

Usually if you put them by a kitchen window then you see them everyday and can remember to change the water and keep an eye on it. Take your cutting at an angle too with a sharpe knife or cutters.

starlight-maybe it depends on the variety of gardenia-but I have about 15 bushes that were planted about 15 yrs ago in full sun and they love it. I think that gards can live in shade, but the more sun they have-they more they bloom. When mine bloom, the entire bush is covered in white. Same thing when I lived in Hawaii-

star, thanks so much for the pics they were very helpful. can't wait till my cuttings grow! i'll be sure to keep you posted.

Sorry I'm jumping in so late on this thread, however, I may have something to offer. The original posting with the brown dried bud appears to be a watering issue. I don't know if it is in the ground or in a pot, however, gardenias can be sensitive to over and under watering and the symptoms can be really close.

The best way is to check the soil, and you may have to dig deep to see. If it is in a pot and the hole at the bottom is plugged by a screen cover or something else, then you could have the roots sitting in water at the bottom while the surface looks dry. If the soil is dry all the way down, it may be too little watering. Most people are either overwaterers (like me) or underwaterers (not me!) so you may have a clue just by your habits.

If it is in the ground, you may have to dig deep to see if the soil 6-8 inches down is wet. If you have clay and are an overwaterer like me, it is impossible to create enough good drainage to have a healthy gardenia. My personal trick that works really well is to line the hole with at least 3 inches of rough gravel to create a permanent air pocket for the roots. The no matter how much I overwater, the plants are OK. This also works well for azaleas, sages, lavenders, etc. that need really good drainage in clay soil. I also plant everything high at least an inch to make sure the crown gets plenty of air circulation.

Finally, gardenias are acid lovers, so if your soils is naturally alkaline like mine, you can mulch with an acid planting mix, keeping away from the crown and keeping about 2-3 inches of acid mix on the top. It should slowly decompose and keep the acid level up in the soil.

How do the leaves look? Can you comment or post a pic?

Starlight1153, fascinating posts about growing on cuttings. I'm gonna try it! Yippee!

Oh, I forgot to say earlier, I work at a nursery and all of our gardenias spend all day in the full hot so cal sun, so I know they can take the sun. I believe that root rot from overwatering is a bigger threat. That can be cured by lining the planting hole with 3+ inches of rough gravel at the bottom of the hole and be sure to plant so that the crown is above the soil level at least an inch.