My garden looks ROUGH, help! Azaleas, Gardenias, Portulacas

Here's the story. I recently bought my first home. My wife bought and planted all these flowers and bushes and kind of neglects them. I'm sick of looking at it, so I'm gonna take command of the garden. Any advice/instruction is GREATLY appreciated.

The garden consists of 2 azaleas between 2 gardenias with maybe 6 portulacas sprinkled in.

The problems:
One of the azaleas looks TERRIBLE like its dying, it's been like this maybe a month? The other one looks alright I guess.
One of the gardenias looks bad off, lots of yellow leaves, rarely any flowers on it, the other one doesn't have the yellow leaves but less flowers than it used to.
The portulacas seem to barely ever be blooming or showing flowers. Mostly closed and just there not looking pretty.

We live in Virginia Beach. I can add a photo if that'll help.

 

Welcome to the Stew! A photo would be very helpful, especially if you can do a long-range shot showing all the plants, and then close-ups of the leaves on the problem plants.
Don't worry about the portulaca, it is an annual. It may self-seed, but pretty much is one season and gone.
Azaleas need acidic soil. Is your soil on the acid side?
I'm sure some gardeners closer to your area will have much more helpful answers.
Next time accompany your wife to the nursery and make sure you get plants you'll enjoy tending!

 

I think some of the white dots on the Gardinia may be from a small amount of soap being sprayed on it.

 

First, I'd get rid of the board fence. It blocks the view of the small garden from the house windows, and also provides a screen from air circulation and a "hot" spot (reflected light and heat).
If the gardenias and azaleas survive, the space provided is too small.
I know this sounds awful, but I'd take everything out, go to a local nursery with pictures and measurements of the space, a north/south orientation, and listen to their recommendations. I think a Knock-out rose (one of the smaller growing ones), a ground cover like vinca, and perhaps an evergreen shrub no taller than 5' at maturity would be very attractive.
Don't worry about it--all gardeners make mistakes or plant something where it just isn't happy. Let us know what you decide, please.

 

I would get rid of the wood fence too--it doesn't seem to have rhyme or reason for being where it is. It cuts off the view of the windows, it ends before the garden bed ends, and it has a sloping edge without reason for a sloping edge.

I would not be as drastic as MG. The one azalea on the left looks pretty healthy. I think I would cut back the dead stuff on the right azalea & see if their is any live growth there. I am guessing these plants just weren't adequately watered since they've been planted. New plants need a little TLC their first season. If time constraints make that too hard, in the furture, I would then plant them with those water crystals that would help retain moisture. I would also amend the soil before planting with compost. Gets the plants off to a better start & then they require less maintenance.

I think I would also take a picture of the ailing gardenia & maybe some of the dead leaves to a nursery to see what they have to say.

Good luck!

 

How often are you supposed to water these? Certain plants need different amounts right? Like the Gardinia doesn't need as much as the Azalea?

 

I was thinking it was a watering problem also... but found it interesting that the plants that aren't doing well are on opposite ends of the bed. And the other plants next to them are okay.
In other words, if the two plants that look bad were next to each other, then I'd think it was lack of water.
I am curious about those white spots. You said they may be from some soap? What kind of soap and why were they sprayed with it? Sure it's not some sort of bug?

 

Someone told me the yellow may be from some sort of bug, and that mixing a tiny but if soap with some water and spraying the leaves may help, if in fact it were bugs.

So the yellow was there prior to the soap. But I'm not 100% certain that the soap caused the spots, I just assum because I hadn't noticed them before.

 

Do you know how much soil prep your wife did? Does she know about the principle of a $5 hole for a 50 cent plant?

 

I dug the holes. They were fairly big, filled back in with half soil/half dirt that came out. They were planted maybe 4 months ago

 

Anyone think it could have "scale"?

 

Mike--That soil prep sounds good. Next question is, do you know if they were regularly watered the past 4 months?

Scale on the gardenia is possibility. Have you googled gardenias & found out if they are susceptible?

 

The other folks who responded are far more knowledgeable than I about the actual plants. But I can comment on the aesthetics of what I see.

First of all, I'd use a completely different color of mulch, especially if you're going to leave that fence there. I'd go with a vibrant red, or a black, but not that faded brown mulch. It adds no life whatever to the look of the bed. I would also replace that boring plastic black edging with a natural stone edging which will look so much better and stand out attractively against the new vibrant mulch color.

And finally, if you're going to keep the fence, then you need to be thinking with your planting arrangement being more asymmetrical so as to compliment the fence configurations. In other words, don't plant shrubs and flowers to balance each other, plant them to balance the fence. So I'd go with a taller, bushy plant where the fence goes away, and on the other end of the bed, where the fence is highest, use shorter shrubs. I'd also find some outside art that you can hang on the fence to give it some visual impact and draw the eye to the fence rather than the cut off window view behind it.

 

New development. Perhaps the white spots weren't from soap? Look at this, there's a few bud things with this white crud on em, and it's also on this dead thing? Anyone know what this looks like?

 

Yes, Gardenias get that. It's a bug. If plants get stressed they can get bugs. Keep them watered and happy and they may not get bugs so much. I would use a light pug spray as soon as you see something on a Gardenia.