I just wanted to give thanks to this forum for helping me cope with and save (?) my office's gardenia bonsai.

It was given to my boss as a gift and was beautiful out of the box. A big plant - close to 2' across. Thick, full foliage, blossoms, the whole nine yards. I was put in charge of keeping it alive, as my boss has a somewhat less-than-green thumb (okay - she can kill anything in the plant kingdom).

I followed the care instructions, and it began to lose leaves. Every day, more leaves yellowed and dropped.

I bought it a humidity/drainage tray. More leaves dropped. I fed it SuperThrive. More leaves dropped. It had pretty decent sun and adequate (every other day) water. I talked to it, cajoled, pleaded and begged it not to die. More leaves dropped. It must have lost more than 80% of its leaves.

Then I found (Google is your friend) posts in the forum talking about how hard gardenia bonsais could be to grow. I was getting depressed. I didn't want to lose this plant - my boss had just lost her husband unexpectedly, and this beauty was a gift from her colleagues. Then I found where one forum poster suggested trying Miracid. I finally found some.

Within a few days, leaves stopped yellowing and falling off. Leaf buds exploded all over the previously balding branches. We rejoiced. Either it has adjusted to its new home, or we found the right combination of feeding (or both). I continue to feed it a very weak Miracid once a week and SuperThrive with every watering.

Please forgive the cameraphone picture. :)

Best regards,

Nancy