before I head to a gardening forum full of geeky gardeners, I figured I'd try with plain vanilla geeks instead.



Vincent is an in/out gardenia. About 4 months in and 8 out.
He's very old and until winter '18 he was always quite healthy.
He'd always look like hell at the end of winter, but after a week outside he'd perk up and get better quickly.
But he has not recovered.

I've seen all differing versions of what to do on a few gardening sites.
Wonder if anyone has any experienced idea. I'm in Zone 7.

My spouse trimmed him way back last year, but that hasn't done anything.

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If there are spelling issues, please pardon, Owen the cat is walking, standing or sleeping on my keyboard.

Possibilities: Root bound, insufficient fertilizer, lack of sunlight. Our potted gardenias lose leaves during their several 4-7 day excursions in the garage during the winter avoiding freezes. They have always come back.

plenty sun. I was thinking maybe root-bound. Pretty sure we're OK on fertilizer.

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If there are spelling issues, please pardon, Owen the cat is walking, standing or sleeping on my keyboard.

Gardenias like acidic soil. You might try adding some coffee grounds to the soil. Hose it of to get rid of any bugs. Good luck. A friend just gave me a gardenia that smells like peaches!

Zone 7 here. When we first bought our house we bought a beautiful 4 ft gardenia from a nursery and planted it in the front. The first winter we had, it froze and never recovered. 8 years later I'm still sad about it

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Root bound was my first impression too.

......could it be prometheus......unbound......???

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!