How often should you water a gardenia to be appropriate?

Gardenia is one of the famous flowers, also known as yellow gardenia, mountain gardenia, and so on. As people's living standards continue to rise, keeping flowers has become an indispensable part of people's lives. Among the many flowers, the gardenia is a fairly widespread one, but many people do not know how to water gardenias. Below, let us take a look together at how often to water a gardenia!

How often should you water a gardenia?

How often to water a gardenia is not fixed, because the climate varies greatly across our country, and watering a gardenia should be based on your own actual situation. In spring, generally water once every three days, and sprinkle water around the potted flowers every morning and evening to increase air humidity. After the dog days of summer begin, the weather is hot: water less in the morning, and water thoroughly after two o'clock in the afternoon, preferably with soft water, because hard water contains more calcium and magnesium salts, which is very unfavorable to the growth of gardenias; in mild cases the branches and leaves turn yellow, and in severe cases they soon die. In winter, watering should be controlled: do not water if the soil is not dry. Long-term excessive moisture easily causes root rot and death.

What happens if a gardenia is watered inappropriately?

1. Overwatering: Overwatering a gardenia causes the young leaves to turn dull yellow and lose their luster, while the old leaves show no obvious change; the branches become thin and yellow-green, and the new shoots shrivel and stop growing. At this point, take the plant out of the pot, place it in a ventilated and shady spot to let the soil ball dry by itself, then put it back into the pot.

2. Too dry: A gardenia being too dry is different from being overwatered. When too dry, the leaf tips or edges wither and dry out, and the old leaves turn yellow and fall off from bottom to top, but the new leaves grow fairly normally. At this point, just pay attention to watering enough and watering thoroughly.

How should you grow a gardenia to do well?

1. Potting soil: The gardenia is an indicator flower that prefers acidic soil, with a suitable pH of 5 to 6. For the growing medium, you can choose leaf mold, peat soil, or composted sawdust plus half garden soil. Avoid old wall soil and coal cinder; using commercially available clivia soil is more convenient and practical.

2. Watering: The gardenia likes moist soil and relatively high air humidity. During the growing period from April to September, keep the potting soil moist. Usually, water when the potting soil turns white, and water thoroughly each time. But after the flower buds appear, watering should not be too much, so as to avoid bud drop.

3. Fertilizing: The gardenia is a plant that likes fertilizer. Add 3% decomposed cake fertilizer to the growing soil as a base fertilizer. During the growing season, use alum fertilizer water made by fermenting cake fertilizer with ferrous sulfate and apply it once a week. During the bud stage, applying 1 to 2 times a 0.1% potassium dihydrogen phosphate aqueous solution can make the flowers larger and the fragrance richer.

4. Light: The gardenia likes light. It can also grow in semi-shade for a long time, but the flowering branches will be longer and the flowers fewer. Except for the need for shade from strong midday light from July to August and during the winter dormant period, it generally needs to be kept in sunlight for care in order to have abundant flowers and lush leaves.

5. Pruning: After the gardenia blooms each year, prune it lightly, cutting off inner branches and diseased or weak branches, and shortening individual leggy branches. But remember that gardenias must not have the branch tips shortened in spring, otherwise they will not bloom that year.

6. Repotting: For gardenias, repotting in March of spring is better. After taking the plant out of the pot, cut off some old roots, shake off half the old soil, plant it into the pot with new soil, then water thoroughly, place it in a warm semi-shady spot, and when new buds begin to sprout, place it in sunlight for care.

7. Overwintering: Gardenias can overwinter in the open ground in the Qinling area of our country, but potted gardenias will have their root system damaged after a severe winter. You can place the potted flowers in a cold room at about 5°C to let them go dormant, protect the root system well, and overwinter them in a wind-sheltered, sunny place, so they recover quickly and bloom early in spring.