"Ariadne" wrote in message
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On 20 May, 18:00, "someone" wrote:
"Ariadne" wrote in message

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On 19 May, 00:43, may wrote:

Ariadne;792569 Wrote:

Does anyone know if ericaceous compost would
be good to use for a gardenia?

Thank you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardenia
just looked up this and it says on there that they like acidic soil
with good drainage

--
may
Thank you. There seem to be temperature and humidity
factors also.

I bought a nearly-dead, shrivelled, drooping gardenia with mostly brown
leaves in a pot from Aldi back in February, reduced to 50p. Well, at that
price I could afford to take a chance :-).

I fed it, using rainwater and ordinary plant food, and set it in a large
plant tray on that green fibre used for hanging baskets. I kept the plant
tray fibre quite moist, so it would mean I didn't need to spray/mist it
every day, although I do mist it every few days, as well as watering the
soil itself.

I read (in Dr. Hessayon's book) that, in order to set flowers, it needs to
be about 60F at night in the winter, rising to 70F during the day, and
also
not in direct sunlight, so I put it on a table in a south-facing room, but
where the sun didn't quite reach it.

And voila! I've had a spectacular succession of flowers for a couple of
weeks now, and it looks to be going on for several more weeks at least.

My first ever gardenia success (because I have had several failures
before).

someone

Brilliant! I bought one for me and one for a gifted
gardener I know. He once grew one from seed.

I offered to share my ericaceous compost and
plant food with him. His response? "No, thanks.
I've got a tub of rainwater!"

Do you always use rainwater?

No. I've gone back to tapwater now that I can see the plant's doing well.
In fact I have a new flush of buds coming on.

Thanks for posting though, I checked out gardenias on Google and see that
they like ericaceous soil and rainwater, so I think I'll go back to
rainwater for it. I haven't had to repot yet.

How amazing of your friend to grow a gardenia from seed! For whatever
reason, my gardenia doesn't seem to set seed.