This informative Gardenia care video shows us how to prepare the Gardenia plant roots for planting. This Gardenia care video assumes that the Gardenia plant that your about to plant is a recently purchased one from a garden center or Gardenia supplier and is currently growing in a pot. A Gardenia plants roots (like most plants) are very delicate and should be handled with care. Ensure that you have prepared a suitable sized hole for your new Gardenia plant. Gardenia plants require a specific soil pH of around 5.0 to 6.5 see our post Gardenia Care Video – Preparing Gardenia Soil to find out more. A Gardenia care expert will always advise you to try and avoid planting Gardenias near concrete walkways or buildings as leeching from the concrete may affect the pH of the soil.
Gardenia Suppliers And Buying Gardenias
As the above video dealt with preparing potted Gardenias for planting I thought it was worth mentioning a few pointers for those of you purchasing Gardenia plants. All of us at some point will buy a Gardenia plant either from a specialist Gardenia supplier or our local garden center. But what would the gardenia care expert be be looking for to ensure that our Gardenia plant is healthy and worth the price tag?
- Firstly a gardenia care expert before they even start to look at the Gardenia plant, would check the pot that’s it growing in! A cracked or damaged pot may have allowed access to disease and pests that could be attacking roots and give you problems later on.
- The pot should be free of leaves, weeds and other plant debris. Any weeds in the pot will have been taking vital nutrients and moisture from your potential Gardenia purchase which may have reduced its resistance to disease and seeing as we are potentially going to stress the plant by transplanting it in to the ground we want our gardenia to be in tip top condition. Old and decomposing leaves and blooms on the surface of the pot are the perfect place for pests to breed and multiply. We don’t want to give a free ride to pests that have been breeding in a garden center back to our garden?
- Check the stems of the plant. The gardenia care expert is looking for broken and damaged stems (recent or old) reject those plants that have damage to them.
- The leaves of the Gardenia should be lovely glossy green. Any yellow leaves might point to the pH of the potting soil being incorrect or a bad watering regime. Gardenia’s can also be susceptible to leaf spot so check for sign of this too.
- In general the Gardenia plant should look healthy and be a good shape. Obviously you can shape the plant to you liking however I would hold off pruning until the Gardenia is well established in your garden.
Other Gardenia Care Videos You Might Be Interested In
If you found this “Gardenia Care Video – Preparing Gardenia Plants For Planting” video and post useful then why not check out some of the other videos on this site.