Hi Lucy,

There are too many factors which will cause gardenia to lose buds, I have never seen a gardenia that never loses its buds. If anybody can find the exact reason of it and find an easy solution, he/she should win the Nobel prize of gardening of the year.

If you search this forum with gardenia, you will see tons of the information regarding its cultivation, of course, you will see you are not the only one complaining its buds abortion. But don't get disappointed, what I found is that once the gardenia is used to the environment you provide, it can hold the buds very well. In my case, even the sun, water and temprature is not optimal, around 70% of the buds can still open properly.

Lucy, you water every 3 days? What size pot is your plant in? Sounds like too much water. Also, what type of container is it in?
I have 2 gardenias, one in a 10" the other in a 12". They get watered thoroughly, (until water seeps from drainage holes) then left to dry..therefore they get a good watering about every 15-20 days.
Gardenias also like cool locations..mine are kept in a semi-unheated room/no vents..south & east windows. Plus some artificial lighting at night.
If it was my plant, I'd withhold feeding for now..at least until you figure out the problem. I don't feed my gardenias in winter. They get a last feeding w/acidic fertilzier in Oct, then another in March. Once a month. I also use Azalea fertilizer that's lasts 3 months.
Anyway, I'm thinking your soil is being kept too wet..Do the finger test. Or use a long stick, like you would to test oil in a car..Toni

Lucy, I feel for you. I just moved from the East Coast over to the West coast and am trying to figure out what blooming plants will flourish her. I bought 2 different species of gardenia(a bush and a tree). The bush is doing great with blooms all the time but the tree lost about 45 blooms by turning brown and not opening. Only about 5 actually opened and that was just after I bought it. I treated them both the same. Go figure. I have found from from previous posts on this site that I am lucky to have obtained the blooms I did. I am going to try the coffee grounds thing on the tree and see if that helps. Good luck.