What is the myth of growing Gardenia, the climate and etc. I believe that gardeners in cold regions are working harder to keep plant alive.

I visited my friend's garden two week ago here in northern California(over hill of East Bay, not SF). She loves gardenia. Her back yard( about 4 to 5 hours of sun) is large and many big size gardenia are planted in the ground. The plants look great with maturity. The flowers will be a continuous display for a few months.

Looks beautiful! Thanks for sharing the pictures, I love looking at them. :)

I wonder what sort of rootstock is used for the graft though. Its so thick for a gardenia... :O

Now, now..You know you're making some of us jelous or envious..Right?
Especially merciepoo!!!...lol

That plant is soooooooooooooo beautiful!!!
I wish I lived there..:-)

It was 38 degrees yesterday with winds of up to 40 miles an hour ALL day...It is the middle of April..What is wrong with this picture? I am lugging my plants in and out for the past 2 weeks...

If it's not at least in the 60's by May, I might be your neighbor..:-)

Great work!

Many thanks for your kind comments!

I'm not sure what they use for rootstock. I do know that we have nematodes in our soils...so there is a need for them to be grafted to rootstocks(I'm guessing that's not suseptible to nematodes)?

Mike, come on down...we'd love to have you here...price of real estate couldn't be better. Guaranteed, by May, you will be wishing you are back in MI, lol...you'll be complaining of the heat and humidity!

!!!!!BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Thanks for sharing, Pug!! LOL, no Mike I'm not jealous, lol! ;) I'm plotting my next gardenia victim..hee hee!!

I can almost smell the blooms from here...mmmmm.....

Thanks Mersie :o)

Hi pug,

Beautiful! Your gardenia loves you and it shows! It looks so healthy and it's blooming for you! By the way, is that a double red hibiscus and a coconut tree in the background of the first picture? I also have lots of hibiscus plants with assorted flower colors. How's your grafted mango tree? Is it flowering/fruiting already? Mine still has to flower. It seems mangoes planted from seeds take longer than 6 years to fruit (at least in my garden).

tropical

Hi tropical,

Thanks for the kind words!! I am excited that I am having luck with my gardenia so far, lol...will enjoy it till it lasts!

My Mango trees suffered severe damage during our winter
"freeze" we had several days in Jan and Feb of temps that got to around 26°-27° for a few nights and it did a lot of damage to my trees. Of course they were all in bloom for the very first time. Needless to say, the trees were almost killed, all the blooms "fried", but surprisinly enough...they all lived and right now they are "recovering"...some better than others.

You are right, the seedling mango do take a lot longer to bloom/fruit than the grafted ones. One of the reasons I bought mine grafted...I am so impatient, lol. Not that it mattered since mine "froze" :o(

Here's a couple of pics so you can see how bad it was...considering how bad it was, I am estatic they are alive! I covered them and put Christmas lights underneath them, they would all be dead if I hadn't protected them.
{{gwi:790921}}
This is what it looks like now...

Tropical, forgot to answer your questions. Yes, this hibiscus gives me three different flowers. It was here when I bought the house...it has the double red flower, single red flower and also pink single all on the same tree. Unfortunately, the same freeze that almost killed my Mango trees also froze this bush, it is also recovering and just very recently started growing again. It will be a while till it flowers again? Maybe late summer early fall.

That is not a coconut tree, just a palm tree, not sure what the name is.

All hail puglvr!

That gardenia is a beaut, and a testament to the work you've put in. I think I'll go sneak over to the flower shop and sniff some of the mini potted gardenias as compensation . . . .

Puglvr,

Wow, your mango tree looks so healthy after recovering from the freeze! And it is flowering! You must have a green thumb!

:) tropical

Thanks Jim!!

Not sure about the green thumb tropical, lol...but it is a lot of work growing tropical fruit trees where it freezes, that's for sure. I'm just glad it doesn't happen too often, but then it only takes one to do severe damage :o(
But the people up north growing them in pots have it a lot harder than me, so I can't complain too much. There is one lonely mango on the tree, less than the size of a green pea, but it looks like its going to drop off. But its okay, just knowing that its capable of producing fruit is a start!

In keeping on staying on topic for this thread and for those not sick of looking at more gardenia pictures, took these today...the blooms are just about done for a while. We are getting way too hot...low 90's this week! Arghhhhh!!

{{gwi:790923}}
{{gwi:69244}}

Pug, I notice the flowers in the first picture are a lot larger than the other pot. What is the cultivar?

Snasxs,

Not sure why the flowers on the first one is larger? They are both the same variety...Miami Supreme(grafted) on rootstock. Maybe because the smaller one has fewer buds, the flowers are bigger? I have three Miami Supremes(all grafted) and one dwarf gardenia.

Puglvr, What kind of potting soil did you use for gardenias? They look very healthy

Hi Kandhi, Thanks for the nice compliments!!

I used Al's mix from the Container forum...turface, Pine bark fines, and coarse silica sand or granite grit.

If you do a search the Container Forum and type in Al's Mix...a TON of info will come up. Be prepared to do a lot of reading, lol..I personally LOVE this mix and I use it for almost all my container plants, regardless of what I grow. You can tweek it to your plants requirements and your growing condition, that's why I really love this stuff. It works for all my plants!

Hi Puglvr1, I have been on container forum and I read about A1mix, I have my plants in 5:1:1 A1mix not gritty mix. I cannot find silica or granite grit in my area. Your mix anyhow, your plants look very happy in that soil mix, whatever you are doing they are loving it I guess.

Oh, thank you for those new pictures! Ahhh, I needed that! :) If I ever go on a vacation again I'm stopping by your house to smell your gardenias, Pug! LOL! ;)