1.Flower fall may be due to cold nights following bud formation or in some cases to heatwave conditons. In the latter case keep plant well watered during hot conditions.

2.Bud drop, with fleshy stem at base of flower girdled or chewed is the result of the gardenia or brown vegetable weevil." He suggests two pesticides to combat this Endosulfan and Carbaryl, - presumably there would be a non-toxic solutions as well.

1) The buds which did form to a good size went dark brown then fell off. When I bought the plants, the buds were fine but a few days after planting, they started to turn this dark brown - the whole bud, not just the outer petals or edges!

2) Some leaves started to yellow. They would turn a solid yellow atarting at the tip to the base, without the green veins rather than a gradual yellowing of the whole leaf. I read that treating with iron chelate is the solution so this is what I've done even though there is next to no veining of the leaves - just go bright yellow.

I don't know what is the cause of the blackening of the buds, though, so I hope someone knows how to treat this as the plants have several buds on them.

The 2 Floridas look alright so far but I did see some young leaves at the base of one of them starting to yellow too. Buds are too small yet to know if they will escape the same plight as the True Loves.

Before planting, I conditioned the soil with an improver for Azaleas & Camellias which I was told could be used for gardenias as well. I used a fertiliser for those types as well then spread peat mulch. I live in Perth and the soil is very alkaline. I measured the Ph and after conditioning it showed 6.0 - is this enough for gardenias?