Please help!!! I have three plants that I'm struggling to diagnose:
1) Banana plant - I purchased this about 3 months ago and it quickly began to go downhill. First it was brown spots in the middle of the leaves and all along the edges, then it as aphids. I got rid of the aphids by making a spray with dish soap, but there has been a black sort of residue on the stems ever since and the leaves just keep looking worse. I tried putting it in different locations since I was thinking the brown spots were scorch marks from too much light, and I also tried to be careful not to over- or underwater it. Nothing seems to be making much difference, with the exception of one location that had more afternoon sun exposure and made things worse. Right now it is on my East patio where it gets unfiltered morning sun and is in full shade by about 1pm. I have cut off multiple sickly looking leaves at the base when they got to the point of being very wilted and yellow, and I just hope I didn't cause too much harm by doing so.
2) Gardenia - I also bought this 3 months ago and it has been doing very well until quite recently. There are holes in the leaves (my gardening app diagnosed it as caterpillars, though I haven't found any yet) and also spots of white all over, which I'm thinking is either mineral deposits from watering or possibly powdery mildew (I've had issues with powdery mildew ever since I moved to Southern California, but so far this particular plant has seemed resistant). The other thing I just noticed today was that several leaves are curled up and very stiff. I have no idea what that could be.
3) Plumeria - I bought this a couple weeks ago and although it's about 1.5' tall, it came in a tiny little pot (4" I believe) and didn't seem to have much of a root structure (1 pretty long root and just a few very short ones). I put it in an 8" pot to allow room for the long root and used a commercial succulent mix for the soil. It seemed to be doing well since then, with the exception of the plant not staying straight up (the soil is very lightweight and when the wind blows even a little the plant gets pushed to the side). I'm not sure what to do about this, but I pushed the soil down a little more to try to secure it and also sheltered it during periods of heavy wind. A few days ago I noticed the bottom leaf was yellow. The soil was quite dry so I assumed I had let it go a little too long without water and gave it a good drink. That was 2 days ago. Today the bottom leaf is still quite yellow, and now another one has a spot on it and is curled. The soil hadn't dried out since I watered it, and unfortunately it rained this morning so the soil is pretty wet. I also noticed some white residue on the woody part near the base of the leaves, which again, I'm afraid might be powdery mildew.
Any and all thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated!
1) Banana plant - I purchased this about 3 months ago and it quickly began to go downhill. First it was brown spots in the middle of the leaves and all along the edges, then it as aphids. I got rid of the aphids by making a spray with dish soap, but there has been a black sort of residue on the stems ever since and the leaves just keep looking worse. I tried putting it in different locations since I was thinking the brown spots were scorch marks from too much light, and I also tried to be careful not to over- or underwater it. Nothing seems to be making much difference, with the exception of one location that had more afternoon sun exposure and made things worse. Right now it is on my East patio where it gets unfiltered morning sun and is in full shade by about 1pm. I have cut off multiple sickly looking leaves at the base when they got to the point of being very wilted and yellow, and I just hope I didn't cause too much harm by doing so.
2) Gardenia - I also bought this 3 months ago and it has been doing very well until quite recently. There are holes in the leaves (my gardening app diagnosed it as caterpillars, though I haven't found any yet) and also spots of white all over, which I'm thinking is either mineral deposits from watering or possibly powdery mildew (I've had issues with powdery mildew ever since I moved to Southern California, but so far this particular plant has seemed resistant). The other thing I just noticed today was that several leaves are curled up and very stiff. I have no idea what that could be.
3) Plumeria - I bought this a couple weeks ago and although it's about 1.5' tall, it came in a tiny little pot (4" I believe) and didn't seem to have much of a root structure (1 pretty long root and just a few very short ones). I put it in an 8" pot to allow room for the long root and used a commercial succulent mix for the soil. It seemed to be doing well since then, with the exception of the plant not staying straight up (the soil is very lightweight and when the wind blows even a little the plant gets pushed to the side). I'm not sure what to do about this, but I pushed the soil down a little more to try to secure it and also sheltered it during periods of heavy wind. A few days ago I noticed the bottom leaf was yellow. The soil was quite dry so I assumed I had let it go a little too long without water and gave it a good drink. That was 2 days ago. Today the bottom leaf is still quite yellow, and now another one has a spot on it and is curled. The soil hadn't dried out since I watered it, and unfortunately it rained this morning so the soil is pretty wet. I also noticed some white residue on the woody part near the base of the leaves, which again, I'm afraid might be powdery mildew.
Any and all thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated!
