A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 My Gardenia is getting worse! Help!

Hi,
I have a gardenia plant that is getting yellow leaves. The leaves start yellowing with green veins, and then after a while, they get yellow and fall off. It currently still has some green leaves left, but I'm afraid it's getting worse. I know that it's iron deficiency because the soil is too alkaline. I need something to make it more acidic!

I've been fertilizing it with regular fertilizer (not a good idea). So today I went out and bought this fertilizer for "Azalea, Camellia, Rhodedendron, and Other Acid Loving plants"--including gardenias. It has 1% chelated iron and 3% sulfur. I hope by adding this my gardenia would get all right. Would this fertilizer help? Anything else I can do?

Thanks for any help .

acidic fertilizer is what should be used with them.I also sprinkle some cow manure around them& if yu have some rusty nails and keep in a pale or something can use the water to water with.
Is it in a pot?or inground?how olds your plant?
Did you know you can water root cuttings?I'm slowly createing my shrubs.i know now that about 1 1/2 yrs it will branch,so most my others should in spring.I have one yellowy cutting growingI'm also thinking the copper gas line left in ground may be some of that.I have a hycanith vine there and leves are yellowish at the same hight.It could take 6-8 weeks to see results,but can water fertilize every 2 weeks.makes a healthier plant for winter anyway.

Thanks!

I put in the fertilizer and I hope it works. Anyway, my gardenia is in a 12" pot. I got it since this spring, so not too old. I've heard the gardenias are hard to grow, which certainly seems true...at least to me.

have you pulled the rootball out of pot?to see how it looks?is it alot of roots?maybe going around?may need bigger size pot.I know for your area have to bring indoors or least protected area.