Staff Pick: Indian Carnation
If you aren’t keen on the constant care involved in making your native soil right for Gardenias, here’s an alternative, and a good one. The “Indian Carnation” is a sub-tropical evergreen shrub and it does great in our heavy clay soil! It grows best in morning sun and afternoon shade, gets around 5 feet tall and wide. It has white flowers that look a lot like an “August Beauty” 
Gardenia, smells sweet, but not overbearing, but more importantly the “Indian Carnation” will constantly bloom from Spring through Fall, unlike a Gardenia! In my humble opinion, that’s a wonderful alternative!
Matt
Irene says
See above.
james says
Sorry Irene, we don’t monitor old posts, so yours slipped by. Many possible causes. Too much water, too little water, too much sun (it can take full sun, but if it moves from shady to sun abruptly that can cause sunburn), insects (like whitefly) all are possibilities. Also excess phosphorus fertilizer, or excess salt in irrigation water. Also things we don’t ever see and can’t imagine. So celebrate your successes, try to learn from your failures, and keep your sense of wonder, because life is full of things good and bad we will never understand.
james says
I guess I should have also mentioned low light, if they got more sun before and less sun now, they will need to adjust the number of leaves they can support.
Carol Grace says
Do you sell/ship Indian Carnation plants?
james says
We do sell, we do not ship.