Gardenia Diary
Reviving Gardenia
10/4/2020
Adopted a dying gardenia yesterday. I never had a gardenia before, so obviously, this is going to be an uphill battle. After inspecting the plant and the planter, here is the major issue, the pot does not have drainage!
First thing first, fix the pot. This is my new found activity. I have many decorative pots, they were just sitting there collecting dust. After doing some research, I found it’s really not all that hard to make them proper pots with drainage. I then bought some diamond coated drilling bits and upgraded to a new drill and got to work. It really only took couple minutes to drill one hole. I had drilled about 10 pots so far and haven’t had any casualties yet ?
The plant was sitting in a pool of water, completely suffocated by heavy muddy soil. I feel drowning touching the wet soil. The old roots showed sign of rot, but there are many many new roots growing. It is so resilient! After cleaning up the roots, I carefully separated the plants. If one sadly dies, I don’t have to dig the whole thing out.
Mixed up some new soil, potting mix + peat moss + coffee grind. They are back in the pot that has a drainage hole covered with mesh and some gravels. I will water them in a couple days. Hopefully they will come back to full life. I know it’s not having best shape right now, once it grows a bit fuller, I will give them a trim.
