Gardenias - Why Don’t We See More

[Daluke]

I’m curious why there isn’t more Gardenia Bonsai around.

Do they exist in Australia?

How come there isn’t more being showcased??

[treeman]

They are very slow to thicken
They are difficult to keep going in the south, long term
They get are subjected to root rot
They lose entire sections of the tree from the roots up in my experience
They are very particular in their soil requirements in the cool areas
They difficult to shape
They they only flower every other year if pruned properly (kept compact)
They attract pests at the drop of a hat
There are not many single flowered types suitable for bonsai in AU
Besides that they are easy..

[greg27]

What Mike said...

In my experience with gardenias as plain old garden plants / pot plants, they're quite temperamental - they don't like being moved around, they like light but not direct light, they're often attacked by pests that ignore every other plant in the vicinity, etc.

Lovely plants though - when they're healthy the leaves are beautiful and glossy, and the flowers smell great. I personally find it difficult to keep them in a nice healthy state!

[melbrackstone]

Even in their native sub tropics they're a temperamental plant, grow well enough, but attract soooo many pests, and rarely flower in the ground conditions I have here. I have one in a pot that's doing ok, but still, slow grower, doesn't thicken easily, I bought it with flowers, but hasn't flowered since, SCALE insect!!!!!!!! arrrggghhhhhhhh...

[treeman]

They are very slow to thicken
They are difficult to keep going in the south, long term
They are subjected to root rot
They lose entire sections of the tree from the roots up in my experience
They are very particular in their soil requirements in the cool areas
They difficult to shape
They they only flower every other year if pruned properly (kept compact)
They attract pests at the drop of a hat
There are not many single flowered types suitable for bonsai in AU
Besides that they are easy..

[treeman]

They are very slow to thicken
They are difficult to keep going in the south, long term
They are subjected to root rot
They lose entire sections of the tree from the roots up in my experience
They are very particular in their soil requirements in the cool areas
They difficult to shape
They they only flower every other year if pruned properly (kept compact)
They attract pests at the drop of a hat
There are not many single flowered types suitable for bonsai in AU
Besides that they are easy..

[treeman]

I tried to fix a typo and got it wrong twice.

[Daluke]

So not worth the headache?

[juan73870]

In my experience south of Adelaide - not worth it. I've been unsuccessful in keeping them alive for more than 2 seasons,tried many times. They just don't like to be played with. And I like to play with them......

[melbrackstone]

Penjing gardenias are pretty.

gard1.jpg

gard2.jpg

gard3.jpg

You can see more at this link. I use Chrome to do the automatic translation, but just looking at the pics can be enlightening too. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3agRznd5s8dg ... d4tQT9Opa0

[Jan]

Thanks, very interesting information.

I've had one passed on to me a bit over a year ago so I'll take it very gingerly in my cold climate.

[Beano]

I had one but it died eventually after looking pretty nice for a few years. It got rot all up the trunk in a section like treeman describes in his list. And scale.


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[terryb]

Hmm.. Haven't tried one in a bonsai pot (yet) but I have 2 varieties growing in pots at home. Oldest have been in the same large pots for over 10 years. They flower for long periods and I have haven't noticed any pests on them.

The more recent additions are probably 5 years old, in a different position and these get hammered annually by mealy bug. They end up looking really bad but they haven't died yet.