Something happened to my 50 year old gardenia bush last fall or winter.
I am not sure what variety I have. I can provide pictures if helpful.

During that time, the plant dropped most of the large green leaves. Now,
the remaining long branches only have very small leaves and stunted
blossoms. The usual spring growth of large new leaves and new blossoms
just won't start.

What can I do to revive my gardenia? Feeding it with Gardenia, Azalea
Camellia food twice has not caused increased large leave growth or new
blossoms. Should I prune back the long branches?

Thank you for any suggestions. Dave_s

On 4/8/2009 6:09 AM, Dave_S wrote:
Something happened to my 50 year old gardenia bush last fall or winter.
I am not sure what variety I have. I can provide pictures if helpful.

During that time, the plant dropped most of the large green leaves. Now,
the remaining long branches only have very small leaves and stunted
blossoms. The usual spring growth of large new leaves and new blossoms
just won't start.

What can I do to revive my gardenia? Feeding it with Gardenia, Azalea
Camellia food twice has not caused increased large leave growth or new
blossoms. Should I prune back the long branches?

Thank you for any suggestions. Dave_s

Check to make sure your gardenia food contains zinc. Gardenias need as
much zinc as do citrus trees. I found that some (not all) Ace Hardware
stores can order zinc sulfate in 5 lbb bags for under $10. A 5 lbb bag
should last you the rest of your life since a gardenia take about 1 Tbs
per month in the growing season.

On the other hand, most plants -- even trees -- have a finite lifespan.
Perhaps your gardenia is just too old. A severe pruning might
rejuvenate it, but such a pruning might also kill it.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary

Dave_S wrote:
Something happened to my 50 year old gardenia bush last fall or winter.
I am not sure what variety I have. I can provide pictures if helpful.

During that time, the plant dropped most of the large green leaves. Now,
the remaining long branches only have very small leaves and stunted
blossoms. The usual spring growth of large new leaves and new blossoms
just won't start.

What can I do to revive my gardenia? Feeding it with Gardenia, Azalea
Camellia food twice has not caused increased large leave growth or new
blossoms. Should I prune back the long branches?

Thank you for any suggestions. Dave_s

I lost one gardenia that I had as a house plant but take out in the
summer to scale. It and a second gardenia were also infested with
spider mites which are easily controlled with soapy spray and I thought
that was the cause. When I finally figured out problem was scale,
treatment with a systemic saved the one plant. Regular insecticides and
mitacides would not work.