One snip of the pruning shears for gardenia and Chinese rose, and the buds are so many they bend the branches

Gardenia

If a gardenia is grown well, it can bloom plenty, with buds coming one after another, and it can easily flower for over half a month. Hearing this, you might wonder: why doesn't mine bloom this much?

A gardenia not blooming, blooming slowly, or blooming sparsely may be due to the following situations:

1. Not enough light

Especially for gardenias grown for 1-2 years, it is already late spring and they still haven't bloomed. What exactly is going on? Huahua answers: not enough light!

Although gardenias like shade and can be grown indoors, after overwintering they need plenty of light to set buds. The spring sun is not too harsh, so hurry and move the gardenia into the sunlight to bask it a bit

2. Soil alkalization

Gardenias grown for more than 1 year may fail to bloom because the soil has become alkaline. Gardenias like acidic soil, and in some areas the water and soil are on the alkaline side, so after repeated watering the soil becomes alkaline

When watering gardenias, tap water is best left to settle for a few days before use

You can also add a few drops of vinegar to tap water (at a water-to-vinegar ratio of 1000:3), and water 2-3 times a month. The picture below shows the before-and-after comparison after watering with vinegar water

Some flower lovers have a better environment and can collect rainwater for watering. Rainwater is acidic, and after settling for a few days it is just perfect for watering gardenias~

3. Not enough pruning

Some flower lovers think gardenias grow slowly and just leave them alone, until eventually messy branches crowd together, use up a lot of nutrients, and there isn't enough left to bloom

Gardenias can be pruned after blooming from May to July each year, or after December when they enter dormancy. Trim off the tips of thin branches, keeping 3 bud points per branch. After pruning, place them in a ventilated spot to heal, or apply carbendazim to disinfect

Besides pruning branches, ordinary fine-leaf gardenias can also be pinched at the growing tip, and spent flowers can be cut off

Spent flowers can also be cut off; note that the cut should be made at the woody part of the flower stalk

After pruning, gardenias grow better, nutrients are more concentrated, and naturally there are more buds and bigger blooms

4. Pests and diseases

Gardenias are prone to green caterpillars, red spider mites, and scale insects. Don't look down on these small bugs; leave them alone for a day and they can spread everywhere, truly making your scalp tingle!

If green caterpillars appear, just pick them off with chopsticks

If it's red spider mites or scale insects, you can cover the flowerpot with a large bag and light mosquito-repellent incense inside. No need to burn a whole coil; fumigating for about 20 minutes is enough

If there are relatively few insects, you can directly spray them off with a watering can

To prevent small insects from breeding, gardenias are best placed in a ventilated spot, the potting soil should not hold standing water, and when watering, only water once the soil is dry

Chinese rose

A single branch of a Chinese rose can normally bear 5-6 flowers. Seeing the Chinese roses grown by expert gardeners always makes it feel like a "flowering machine." Do the following points well, and ours at home can be grown like that too!

1. Apply enough fertilizer

Chinese roses like fertilizer, and blooming heavily inevitably requires enough fertilizer. We can usually buy slow-release fertilizer, bloom-boosting fertilizer, and compound fertilizer on the market; using them according to the instructions is more convenient

We can also use resources at home to make our own flower fertilizer, and the effect is excellent too

Rice-washing water and soybean water can be fermented for 3-4 weeks, then diluted with water to feed the flowers (at a ratio of 1:2000)

Mix fruit and vegetable peels into soil, seal and ferment for 1 month. After it is fully fermented, mix 10-20 grams into the flower soil every 10 days

If conditions allow, you can mix some chicken manure or sheep manure into the flower soil; it will make them thrive like crazy

2. Get enough sunlight

Chinese roses like light, and full-day sun is best; the more sun, the more vigorously they bloom. Besides growing them in the open, we can also plant them on a south-facing balcony, and if there is a windowsill at home with good light, that works too

3. Pest and disease control

Chinese roses are prone to pests and diseases. Powdery mildew, leafcutter bees, aphids, and so on seriously affect bud formation and blooming, so quickly kill them all!

If discovered early and there are not many insects, just crush them directly, or spray them off with a watering can. If the insects are concentrated on a certain branch, you can cut it off directly; if there are many, you can spray an imidacloprid solution to kill the insects

For leafcutter bees, you can place sticky insect boards near the Chinese roses, and big and small insects alike will all get stuck!

As the temperature gradually rises, insects breed more easily. We can prevent this in advance and pay attention to rinsing the leaves when watering, keeping them clean~

4. Prune blind branches

When nutrients are insufficient, Chinese roses are prone to producing blind branches and blind buds

Blind branches and blind buds will not grow into useful stems, so they should be cut off in time to preserve nutrients, but when pruning, keep the bud points below

Blind buds on the stems should be removed; only then can the main stem of the Chinese rose grow thicker and stronger, concentrating nutrients to form buds and bloom!

Methods to make gardenias and Chinese roses bloom frequently

Have you flower lovers learned them?

Just use your hands a little

And you can harvest a pot full of blooms