Have you ever seen a snow gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides)? It’s a hardy perennial that blooms in the late spring and early summer. The flowers are pure white, and they have a sweet fragrance.
Gardenias need proper care in order to bloom well, but they’re worth the effort. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to care for your snow gardenia during the summer months. We’ll also provide some tips on how to keep it looking its best.
Let’s know more about them!
What is summer snow gardenia?
It’s a gardenia cultivar that’s small and semi-dwarf, with huge, double flowers, evergreen foliage, and good cold resistance. Plants can grow up to 5′ tall with a similar spread and have a tall, thickly branching form as they mature. Commonly sold under the name SUMMER SNOW at nurseries and garden centers.
‘Summer Snow’ is drought tolerant and thrives in neutral to acidic soil. It prefers iron and higher fertility. Its robust, symmetrical habit works well in borders, beds, mass plantings, and as a specimen plant.
You might enjoy this post:
Is a Summer Snow gardenia a perennial?
Summer snow gardenias are small evergreen plants that are perennial. Their sweet white flowers bloom late in the spring and last all summer. Before withering, each flower can last several weeks. However, some plants behave as annuals depending on the environment and growing conditions.
What is the best care for a gardenia plant?
Outdoor care
Gardenias are cold-sensitive and may suffer in harsh winters; as a result, they are often cultivated outside where the winter temperature is comfortable or in pots and brought in for the winter. Fall or spring is the most ideal period for planting the gardenia bush.
When it comes to outdoor gardenia care, keep in mind that the gardenia plant prefers to be kept in partial shade when growing outside. Gardenias also prefer moist, acidic soil with enough well-drained organic matter. Gardenias need to be watered on a regular basis, even after the blooms have faded. After flowering has stopped, prune the gardenia bush to remove wasted blooms and untidy branches and to keep the plant in good shape.
Indoor care
Gardenia plants can also be grown in containers and cared for like houseplants indoors. When cultivating a gardenia shrub indoors, keep in mind that it needs a lot of light and a lot of humidity.
Winter’s dry, short days will be the most challenging, especially if the gardenia bush does not receive adequate humidity. During the winter, you can increase light conditions by moving plants to southern-facing windows and/or supplementing them with grow lights.
Indoor gardenia maintenance necessitates a high level of humidity. The blossoms will begin to fall off the shrub rapidly if the air is too dry. There are numerous techniques to boost the humidity in the home, including the use of a humidifier or clustering plants together on trays of moist pebbles. Mistreating the gardenia plant is not a good idea because it can produce fungal leaf patches.
Moisture should be maintained in loose, organic soil, but not to the point of overwatering. Monitor the soil often for moisture and water deeply as the top inch (2.5 cm.) of soil dries. Cooler nighttime temperatures and warmer daytime temperatures are also beneficial to the gardenia plant.
Is gardenia a sun or shade?
Bright light, but not direct sunshine, is preferred by indoor potted gardenias, especially during the summer. It’s preferable to put them in a sunny window that gets midday shade. Garden gardenias thrive in a somewhat shaded environment. Here, too, some sun with some afternoon shade works well.
How do you keep gardenias blooming?
Here are some suggestions for getting your gardenias to bloom.
- Put an acidic, slow-release fertilizer, like azalea or camellia fertilizer, to your shrubs. Blood meal, fish emulsion, and bone meal are all suitable choices for organic gardeners.
- Keep an evenly moist soil, but resist overwatering, as gardenias do not like wet feet. Irrigating when the top two inches of soil feel dry is part of a good watering routine. Deeply water your plants, and apply an organic mulch to keep the soil moist. Mulch is also useful for weed management surrounding plants because shallow-rooted gardenias do not tolerate cultivation.
- Wait until the plant has finished blooming in early summer to trim it. Gardenias usually don’t require much pruning. Cut back uneven branches and older, less productive stems to reshape plants. Flowers that have faded can be removed at any time. By late summer, plants will set flower buds for the following season, so avoid pruning afterward.
