A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Yellowing Leaves

I have a gardenia bush planted in a pot on my patio. I have been watering it about twice a week. But everytime I do, some of the leaves turn yellow. I watered it Friday and today about 25% of the leaves turned yellow.

What am I doing wrong?

Hello marles.crow@comcast.net,
Welcome to The Garden Helper's Forum!!!
We are glad you found us!!!

I just wanted to let you know it may be a bit for
all of our gardeners to come thru and read your post...
This plant could also be considered a house plant?

And we do have alot of House plant gardener's here too!!!

What we can do is leave your post here a bit and see if some of the gardener's have an answer for you... if in a few days, there's no reply's, we can move it into the House plant section, where there is some gardener's that are strictly HP gardners and they may be able to help you as well.

Again, Glad you found us...
Don't forget to take a peak around and enjoy the site... We've got alot of sections here to keep us all busy..Recipe's, Crafts, Hobbie's.... please post a reply on any that tweak your fancy, or post a brand new one if you don't see one you like there...

Jump right on in and enjoy the group...

Weezie

Since Gardenias like acidic soil, you could try used coffee grounds and a little pickle juice mixed into the potting soil. Also to darken up the leaves you could use epson salts-- put 2 Tlb to gallon of water. I had one that was about dead from the looks of it & after getting this tip from a friend in Texas, I tried it & mine snapped right back:)

In potted plants be careful using pickle juice because of the salt level. Salt can be very toxic to plants. Pickel juice has salt in it. When used in the yard salts can leach out easier.

Gardenias will often yellow and drop leaves with environmental changes. Like cold to hot.. dry to wet... The color change and leave drop is usually fast.

Now if the leaves were yellowing inter venially slowly that my be a nutritional problem, like iron or nitrogen. But they usually do not drop the leaves unless there has been a long term problem. Acid is important to allow the plant to adsorb the proper nutrients.

I have the same yellowing of leaves - only on my columbine plants. I'm stumped as to why.
It was purchased a few seasons ago as a plant, and put in a west exposure. Now I have alot of smaller plants, but it seems that although the leaves come up green, they eventually turn yellow.
Any ideas?
(The one I planted from seed in a East exposure however, is doing beautifully)!
Thx

Do you have any photos? If they are coming up green and over time turning yellow that may be nutritional problem.

Unfortunately, no photos. Yes - coming up green, and then shortly thereafter, turning yellow, sometimes leaves ringed with brown. Too dry do you think?? I try to water them alot, but can't seem to get them to stay green.
This west exposure is very hot - especially in the late afternoons.
Thanks again!

JAKE,
Is it leaf miner's????
Weezie

If leaf miner's makes the leaves look like they have white strings on them, then no. Leaves just yellow. (If I'm mistaken about how the leaf miner looks, could you perhaps send a pic?)
Thx - Ellen

JAKE,
Minor's leave white lines through the leaves.
They can tend to brown up and die later
in the season?????

Thinkin' on the yellowin'!!!

Can you tell us more about the growing conditions?
Is it next to a cement item?
In the woods???
In a pot???????

The plants done by seed usually are stronger, the
seed plant seems to adapt the seed right to the growing conditions it's in, and when a plant is taken from a nursery and then put into some type of surroundings, it tends to weaken them.......

My hollihocks' are the same way, store boughten or transplanted have never faired as well as seeds.

Weezie

It was a store bought plant (from a nursery). I planted it out front of the house, so it is near the cement foundation.
As mentioned earllier, I have another out in the back of the house, which I planted from seed, and it never seems to yellow, and the plant is strong.
The one out front however, never seems to really develop, although it does drop lots of seed I guess, as I have lots and lots of baby columbines, yet they all seem to yellow!
Strange---
Maybe I should just get rid of it!!

JAKE,
It could be that the cement leaches lime and
that effects the plant, too much????
Also, could be too hot for the plant, right next to the cement wall, cement tends to retain heat and columbines are even sprouting in the snow here, so, it might like a cooler place.....
Or even too much sun????

But hey, if it's producing seeds, I personally would let it go, so I could take the seeds and sprinkle them around...nutzy but that's me, I like the seeds.....

Weezie

foundation of house may be effecting the pH of the soil

Thanks Weezie & Buglady for your advice. I am starting to suspect that it is a combination of the cement and the sun/heat. I will keep an eye on it this season to see if it develops more, and perhaps give it a bit more TLC. I hope it survives, as the flowers on it were quite pretty (from what I remember @ the nursery). (It has never flowered for me yet)!
Anyway - thanks a bunch!

Hi JAKE,
I am a big fan of Spray~n~Grow
It's on QVC here, but gave you the link to where it is..
I have had plants, like a Peony group that had never flowered, and some waining tulips I tried it on, and several other's that I felt needed it.
The Peonies flowered last year, look awesome this year and the tulips are at least now attempting to flower, let's just say they seem happier now!

It is not a fertilizer, it's an addition to fertilizer you'd put on, but I bought one bottle with the intention of just seeing how it did.
I am giving it a thumbs~up!

That's one thing tricky about columbines, when they grow, they really don't need good soil, in fact alot of times the good soil actually hurts the plant, because they produce more foliage than flower's, and this seemed to help the flowering with over doing the green!

Weezie