A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems Yellowing Leaves on my Gardenia bush

My gardenia is having issues. The leaves are turning bright yellow. I 'googled' the problem and surmised that the soil was retaining too much water and the roots were too wet. It was correct. I remixed the soil with more sand, peat and perlite and repotted the bush. I also moved the pot into a more shady spot to help lessen the shock of repotting. To help it even more I fertilized it with a fertalizer specifically for Azaleas (since gardenia's are acid loving plants as are Azaleas). Yet the leaves continue to turn yellow. The new growth is light green, then turns a darker green after it's matured and shortly after the leaves start turning yellow. The veins remain green when it begins to turn, but then eventually the whole leaf turns yellow. It even began to bloom, but I decided to remove the blooms so the plant doesn't expend energy on that when it needs to focus on new growth. What could be doing this? I just started putting Epson Salt on the soil thinking perhaps it's not getting enough Magnesium. I'm at a loss trying to figure it out. Anyone have any ideas or can figure out what I'm missing? Any help would be appreciated!!

Your plant might be just shocked...the planting, water issue, digging, replanting then fertilizing might have stressed it a bit.

Good call on removing the blooms..just leave it rest a bit...it should bounce back in time.

Welcome, greenguru.
The cure for yellowing leaves with the still green veins used to be rusty nails tucked into the soil around the plant in olden days grandma's garden.
That symptom usually means a low iron. See if you can find a bit of iron to add to the mix of food. But just a bit. There is such a thing as too much too.
Good luck!