About three weeks ago, my Chinese perfume plant died. I purchased the plant from Logee’s Greenhouses. They sell tropical plants on the Internet, and through a catalog. The plant was supposed to be easy to care for. When I called to complain about it, I was told that the problem was probably that I had used potting soil with fertilizer already in it, and the plant was getting fertilizer whenever it was being watered. In other words, the plant was over fertilized, so it died.
They gave me instructions to repot the plant 10 days after I received it, so that is what I did. I was told not to buy potting soil with fertilizer already mixed in it. I realize now that this may be the reason why a lot of my plants are dying. I told the lady on the phone that they should have sent me instructions about what type of soil to use when I repot the plant, and she told me that it is the customer’s responsibility to ask questions like this, and they can’t give all the information for every plant. The moral of the story is, when you buy a new plant, you need to ask them specific questions about it. They’re not going to give you specific information about your plant unless you ask them, so from now on, whenever I buy a new plant, I’m going to call them on the telephone, and specifically ask them what I need to do in order to care for the plant. She said they would send another one free of charge, but it’s kind of aggravating because now it’s too cold for them to send it, so it probably won’t arrive until spring.
Always ask questions of the seller. Never feel like any question is too simple, or too stupid to ask about. They won’t tell you unless you ask, so you need to ask to get the information that you need. I definitely learned something from this incident. I never would’ve thought that the fertilizer in the soil could be killing my plant!