Well, I did the spray job you talked about jonni13--thanks again for the idea. It took me a good 30 minutes or more to clean the aphids off my gardenia plant. Now that I've got them cleaned off, I made a water/soap spray solution and on Sunday I will spray it down good.
Unfortunately I had to put it back in the sunroom where it was. So this means there are probably aphids all over in there. Disgusting...
I must have about 35 buds, some large, some smaller on my plant. I don't know what will happen now that I've given it a good spraying off but it sure looks better. I live in Washington State on the East side which is warmer and dryer than the west side. The aphids like the cooler weather and we've had a cooler
spring than normal. Hopefully it will start getting hot and I can put my plant outside in the sunshine.
Oh and Marica--I took your advice too..lol. I did smash as many of those aphids I could with my bare hands while I was washing the plant down.
Wish me good luck!