I remember buying Gardenias as fragile, temperamental, and as I seem to recall expensive pot plants in the UK. Well here they're large shrubs, small shrubs, prostrate ground cover shrubs, hedging or - as here - grown as standards! We bought this one not long after we arrived and it's taken us a while to work out how to look after it: lots of water, not too much wind (although it's been falling over in its pot regularly with all the wind), get rid of woolly aphids and scale insects as soon as you see them and water in lots of liquid seaweed fertiliser as soon as the leaves start to yellow... and so here it is, looking luscious and starting to flower again at the beginning of summer. Mmmmmmm what a gorgeous smell.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Garden/ia
I remember buying Gardenias as fragile, temperamental, and as I seem to recall expensive pot plants in the UK. Well here they're large shrubs, small shrubs, prostrate ground cover shrubs, hedging or - as here - grown as standards! We bought this one not long after we arrived and it's taken us a while to work out how to look after it: lots of water, not too much wind (although it's been falling over in its pot regularly with all the wind), get rid of woolly aphids and scale insects as soon as you see them and water in lots of liquid seaweed fertiliser as soon as the leaves start to yellow... and so here it is, looking luscious and starting to flower again at the beginning of summer. Mmmmmmm what a gorgeous smell.
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1 comment:
I have not smelled a gardenia in 30 years. The last one was on my bridal bouquet. It is absolutely my favorite flower. jan
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