After gardenia flowers fade, prune and care for them to encourage continuous buds, abundant blooms, lush branches and leaves, and no yellowing leaves

Gardenia flowers are pure white and full of fragrance. Every year in spring, when gardenias are in full bloom, many flower lovers buy a pot to place at home for enjoyment. Some flower lovers think gardenias bloom only once a year, and after the flowers fade they stop caring for them. In fact, gardenias bloom from May to July. After each round of buds opens, reasonable pruning and care can encourage gardenias to grow lush branches and leaves, with buds opening round after round without stopping.

Careful flower lovers can observe their own gardenias. Gardenia buds are terminal, meaning buds grow at the tips of new branches, and then side buds grow on both sides of each bud. After the bud opens, these two side buds will successively grow new buds. Therefore, for post-bloom pruning of gardenias, after each flower fades you only need to remove the spent flower and the receptacle. This differs from roses and other flowers. If you cut off the spent flower together with the branch below it, you are cutting off the flower buds that are forming, and no more buds will grow on that branch.

Keep the two side buds on either side of the bud, and at the same time apply more phosphorus and potassium fertilizer to promote bud formation. After removing spent flowers, apply a diluted organic liquid fertilizer once every 10 days, such as fermented alum water, together with spraying a 1:1000 potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution once every 7 days, and new buds will soon grow. At the same time, lightly prune the plant, thinning out overly dense branches and overlapping crossing branches to increase the plant's air circulation. Only in this way can your gardenia bloom round after round without stopping.

Since gardenias like water and also like acid, in order to make gardenias grow lush branches and leaves and reduce or eliminate yellowing leaves, you can water using the soaking pot method. In daily care, avoid water accumulation in the pot, and also keep the potting soil often slightly moist, trying not to let the potting soil dry and crack. At the same time, use a 1:2000 ferrous sulfate solution once every 20 days to drench the roots of the plant to prevent gardenias from yellowing leaves due to iron deficiency. If there are individual yellow leaves, remove them promptly, and at the same time place the plant in a balcony with scattered light or a shaded, softly lit spot in a small yard, and increase ventilation. To maintain air humidity, when there are no buds you can spray the plant with water to keep it moist.