I bought a beautiful, lush miniature gardenia back in February. For a long time it appeared as if it would bloom, but the so-called blooms to be, instead, became week and fell off by the dozens. Leaves slowly fell off, and it became quite bare. For months it did this, creating new blooms that become weak, and there were also black seed like pods that also appeared and fell off. I repotted it in a mix of succulent soil and potting soil. Then, to my amazement, about 3 months after repotting, i got about 5 beatiful blooms!!! Now its back to the same old same old, although it appears as if there are constantly new little leaves that give me hope. Ive never been very good with blooming plants - Can anyone help me?
Here, I pulled this off another site: The most irritating problem encountered with gardenias is "bud drop,"when flower buds abort just before blooming. Common causes include low humidity, over-watering, under-watering, insufficient light high temperatures, rapid temperature fluctuations, cold drafts or change in plant locations. In other words, gardenias are temperamental! Plants that do not set flower buds may be experiencing too much warmth. Any of this sound familiar?
