re: please help me keep my new plants alive

You can also amend the soil with expanded shale, but since it seems they’re already in the ground that boat has sailed.

I can’t grow Gardenias to save my life. I kept my tropical hibiscus my life. Seems others just plant and forget about them and they flourish. My plants are in pots, though. My G’s died after a repot, and had been blooming nicely before needing repotting.

follow on question - I plant some indian hawthorn in a bed in my backyard a couple years ago, and they have barely grown. they dont die, but they also dont really grow. what could cause this phenomenon?