So I'm taking bets..how long do you think these will live? You can bet on one, or both. I bet both will die in oh...I'd say 4 months. That way they will make it most of the winter, and I'll get my hopes up that they will bud..and then CLUNK, they'll keel over. Then I will go INsane-er.

First pictures of the evil plants, about a month ago I think.

One that got trimmed real good (Gary Gardenia, the one who really has it in for me I think)

The new leaves always look so yellow, don't they?
Toying with me, I know they are....

Here are the pictures I took today. They're all inside because its getting cold out.

I think the one that got trimmed so bad (Gary gardenia?) is going to die indoors in your home. With limited sun during the winter in your home, there's nowhere to go for 'Gary' but down the grave in time for your Halloween celebration... LOL! :)

As for gardenia #2, it looks green and healthy but with the soil mix you are using (is that 80% sand?), I doubt it will survive in the long term. Why don't you use the tried and tested, black, loamy, humus-rich garden soil? You probably have some in your backyard. It should do better than that sand-soil mixture you are using which seems to have more sand than soil. Gardenias don't like waterlogged soils but they don't like loose soils either. Loose soils make root establishment difficult especially for young plants with few roots to anchor to the soil. Try bending your gardenia from the topmost branches. If it doesn't spring back to its original position then your soil mix is too loose and lacking in compactness which is not favorable to good root establishment. (Too compact a soil will clog drainage which is also not good.)

For all my potted plants, I use loamy garden soil mixed with 20-25% rice husk. It makes for good drainage while maintaining correct soil firmness/compactness. The husk also fertilizes the plants gradually as it tends to decompose slowly.

tropical

As to see if Gary bites it, I'll be interested to see what happens. So far he's put out new leaves. They are in a south facing window, so hopefully they will survive. If I have to I'll put some lights on the buggers.

I get your point. However, isn't it that in a typical American home during winter, humidity indoors is very low? From high school physics, I've always learned that low humidity = faster rate of evaporation = faster rate of drying. Wouldn't a fast draining, fast drying, soil-less or other special easy-drying mix do worse than moisture retaining garden soil?

I strongly recommend you try real soil in your indoor conditions. Sometimes you need to try things and sometimes things are not what they seem or are believed to be... especially with plants. If what you've been doing doesn't seem to work, why do it over and over again?

Nurseries are different to American homes. Their humidity, watering and fertilizing schedules are carefully monitored and controlled. Humidity in nurseries is usually maintained around 60% to 70%. Humidity in hour home during winter is probably around 40% or less so why use a fast-draining, fast drying mix?

Anyway, it's really up to you. I am just suggesting you try it out with some of your 'dispensable' plants.

It's really like the case with my euphorbias. All nurseries from where I bought them almost always use exclusively sandy soil on them. However, I've experimented with them extensively and always found out I get healthier euphorbias with better blooms in rich loamy soil than with sandy soil. As a bonus, I don't have to water them as frequent as the nurseries do. It's definitely a simpler and easier life for me.

tropical