How to plant gardenia seeds? Detailed explanation of the sowing method

Gardenia is an evergreen shrub of the family Rubiaceae, distributed in central and south-central China. Its leaves are bright green and evergreen all year round, and its flowers are large, pure white and richly fragrant. It can be planted in patches or placed at forest edges, in front of courtyards, in courtyard corners, and along roadsides. It is also very suitable for balcony greening, potted flowers, cut flowers or bonsai. Now let us take a look at how to plant gardenia seeds!

What conditions are needed to grow gardenia?

1. Light: Gardenia likes light and can also tolerate shade. Under shaded conditions, the leaves are dark green but flowering is slightly poorer.

2. Temperature: Gardenia likes a warm and humid climate, tolerates heat and is also slightly cold-tolerant (-3°C).

3. Soil: Gardenia likes fertile, well-drained, acidic light clay loam. It also tolerates drought and poor soil, but the plant is prone to aging.

4. Water: Gardenia likes moist soil and relatively high air humidity. During the growing season, watering should be increased appropriately.

How to sow gardenia seeds?

1. Seed selection: Choose plump, dark red mature fruits and dry them in the sun or in the shade with the shells still on to use as seeds. After digging out the seeds, rub them apart in hot water to remove floating seeds or impurities. Then scoop out the sunken, plump seeds and spread them on a bamboo mat, placing them in a ventilated place to dry off excess moisture.

2. Land preparation: Choose sandy loam with deep, loose and fertile soil. After plowing 1-1.5 chi deep, make beds. Apply 20-30 dan of human and animal manure per mu. After the soil dries, level the bed surface and open sowing furrows on the bed surface at a row spacing of 6-7 cun, with a furrow depth of about 1 cun.

3. Sowing: Gardenia can be sown in spring or autumn. For spring sowing, sow around Yushui; for autumn sowing, sow around Qiufen. When sowing, mix the seeds with wood ash and evenly sow them in the sowing furrows, then cover the sowing furrows level with fine soil or burnt soil. Keep the soil moist regularly to help germination.

4. Seedling raising: After sowing gardenia, water regularly to keep the bed surface moist. Seedlings can emerge in about 20 days. After emergence, remove the covering grass on the bed surface. When the seedlings grow 2-3 true leaves, thin them out by removing overly dense and weak seedlings, and apply appropriate topdressing at the same time.

5. Planting out: For gardenia sown in autumn and cultivated until late autumn or early winter of the second year, it can be planted out when the seedlings are more than 30 cm tall. For spring-sown seedlings, they can be planted out when they reach 30 cm tall in the second spring. If they do not reach 30 cm tall, continue cultivating them until late autumn or early winter for transplanting.

How to grow gardenia well?

1. Potting soil: Gardenia is an indicator flower that likes acidic soil, with a suitable pH of 5 to 6. For cultivation soil, you can choose leaf mold, peat soil, or composted sawdust plus half garden soil. Avoid using old wall soil and coal cinder. Using commercially available Clivia soil is more convenient and practical.

2. Watering: 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 pale, and water thoroughly at one time. However, after flower buds appear, watering should not be too much to avoid bud drop.

3. Fertilizing: Gardenia is a fertilizer-loving plant. Add 3% decomposed cake fertilizer to the cultivation soil as base fertilizer. During the growing season, water once a week with alum fertilizer water made by fermenting cake fertilizer plus ferrous sulfate. During the bud stage, watering once to twice with a 0.1% potassium dihydrogen phosphate aqueous solution can make the flowers larger and the fragrance richer.

4. Light: Gardenia likes light and can also grow in semi-shade for a long time, but the flowering branches will be longer and the flowers fewer. Except for shading from strong midday light from July to August and during the winter dormancy period, it generally needs to be kept in sunlight for care so that it can bloom abundantly and have lush leaves.

5. Soil replacement: It is better to replace the soil for gardenia in March in spring. After taking it out of the pot, cut off some old roots, shake off half of the old soil, plant it into the pot with new soil, then water thoroughly, place it in a warm semi-shade place, and put it in sunlight for care when new buds sprout.

6. Pruning: After flowering each year, lightly prune gardenia by cutting off inner branches and diseased or weak branches, and shorten individual leggy branches. But remember that gardenia must not have branch tips shortened in spring, otherwise it will not bloom that year.

7. Overwintering: Gardenia can overwinter outdoors in the Qinling area of China, but potted gardenia roots will be damaged after severe winter. The potted flowers can be placed in a cold room at about 5°C to make them dormant, protecting the root system well. Place them in a windproof, sunny place to overwinter, and they will recover quickly and bloom early in spring.