i dont do C up here in MI ... so i cant help you directly with them ...

but generally speaking ... [and i think we are discussing it in other posts] .... shade is a water issue ...

many plants defined as needing shade.. need to be protected from direct sun.. in the heat of the day ... and the problem can become.. what kind of aggressive water sucking large trees are you planting under .. which are giving you shade.. but interfering with what you are planting under them ..

my best example is hosta .... they are ONLY SHADE TOLERANT ... but they are heavy water users ... and if you plant them in sun... they will grow like weeds.. but by this time of year.. get really ugly looking... but they processed so much sun into energy ... that next year.. they will be bigger.. than if they were grown in too much shade.. and lose vigor because its so dark ... and we usually find out.. in the deep shade.. after a couple years of under-performing.. when we dig them up.. the bad trees have invaded the H root zone .. and they are sucking the life out of them ...

so when you are looking for a spot in shade.. you have to go beyond some descriptive term such as 'shade' ... and make sure you are dealing with all the variables ...

you are surely on the right track .... experimenting.. and moving things.. buying diverse stock .... etc ... and your just going to have to puzzle it all ..

so when i read your description of light.. it seems like they should be very tolerant of your location of choice ...... so then.. my next thought would be.. what is it.. other than light itself.. that might be the issue ... [and a hosta grower might think.. oh.. its those darn trees..lol]

ken

The leaf dropping is unlikely to have been the exposure, unless they burned up. Even then it could have been soil conditions. As mentioned in general partial shade = shading during the entire hottest part of the day, either a solid pool of shade or a broken pattern. The key thing being that the sun does not sit on any part of the plant long enough to cook it.

Full shade plants are so prone to burning they can't even be relied on to get through the morning with hot sun beating on them for hours. However partial shade plants may not perform fully unless there is a sufficiently long period of either broken or full sun exposure. Just not at a time of day or for a duration that will burn them.

If you say where you are geographically you may get somebody coming on with relevant local experience. Someone with similar climate and perhaps soils.

It is pretty hot right now in SC but it is suppose to be pretty shady and very rainy in the next two weeks. Should I go ahead and try to move them now or wait until October ? I don't want to stress them out more, but they have only been in this second spot for a couple months so I would like to get them out without hurting/cutting any new roots accidently and get them in their permanent home so they can start growing roots and enjoying the new spot. Watering is not an issue, its going to be rainy and I can water easily in this spot, if that helps.

If the tops have tender new growth wait until they don't.

I am not sure what exactly tender growth is, I have attached a picture of two of the plants to have a better idea. The only change I have really seen is that they are going from yellow leaves to green leaves, slowly. No new growth per say.

Looks like they need to be fertilized.

I would either move now or move in October, if I fertilize should I move now so they don't grow into the current spot too well ?

And what kind of fert is recommended for gardenias? I just got my soil kit today so I'm doing pH tests tomorrow

And these will get bushy again right? I mean I can see through the bottom half of this shrub

My established gardenias are in a mix of full sun, morning shade/afternoon sun. and all day dappled shade. The full sun ones seem to be the best. I didn't plant them, they were established when I moved here.

(I'm in 8b, coastal SC.)

i bought a 'jubilation' gardenia this past spring and, contrary to the touted merits of this cultivar, it did not re-bloom for me. it is still small, though. i am still holding it over in the original container until fall to plant out and the site will be one that gets eastern exposure early and then high shade thereafter. i have better luck with them if they are not exposed to any direct sun during the hottest hours of the summer. i've noticed that where they are planted in more direct sun in other gardens, the flowers are abundant but they take on a yellow color very quickly after opening and fade much faster.

your "third spot" sounds about right and i don't think it matters about the cultivar of gardenia - they all seem to respond well to the same conditions. i was just hoping for more flowers from this one than the initial once-and-done flush common to most cultivars.

did you plant near the foundation originally? sometimes the concrete footing and also the mortar holding the bricks can leach lime into your soil and it will become more alkaline than a gardenia prefers, giving them the chlorotic yellow look.

I did have them close to a walkway so maybe that's part of the isdue.

Is there anything to say they will not bud out this spring or should I be expecting some blooming this spring ?