{"title":"Gardenias","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe genus honors Alexander Garden, a Scottish physician who reached Charleston in 1752 at twenty-two, botanized the Carolina Lowcountry, and corresponded with Linnaeus for years. Garden's friends in London pressed Linnaeus for the better part of a decade to hang a name on him. Linnaeus gave way in 1760 and John Ellis published the genus the following year, which means a Southern gardener planting a gardenia is planting a small piece of Carolina natural history along with the best fragrance in the shrub border.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scent needs no argument. What separates the selections here is cold tolerance and habit: 'Chuck Hayes' and 'Kleim's Hardy' are the two to reach for in the upper South, the first a full double that repeats in late summer, the second a single-flowered, low, tough plant that takes zone 7 winters in stride. 'Daruma' stays dwarf and dense enough for a container beside a door. Give them acid soil, morning sun with afternoon shade, and steady moisture; yellowing leaves usually mean the ground has gone too alkaline or too dry rather than anything more serious.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"gardenia-jasminoides-chuck-hayes","title":"Gardenia jasminoides 'Chuck Hayes'","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe gardenia needs no introduction in the South; the scent alone has been stopping people in driveways for generations. What 'Chuck Hayes' adds to that old story is nerve in the cold. The line traces back to the late 1970s and a Virginia Beach nurseryman named Charlie Hayes, who noticed a single-flowered gardenia that had come through a brutal freeze unbothered. He crossed that survivor with a double-flowered plant and handed the seedlings to Dan Milbocker, a horticulturist at the Hampton Roads research station, who grew them out, picked the toughest, and eventually released the plant under Hayes's name. The result is a fully double, classically fragrant gardenia that behaves as a far more delicate shrub has no right to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe hardiness is not marketing. In side-by-side trials against 'Mystery', a gardenia already considered cold-tough, 'Chuck Hayes' came through field freezes that left the rival with heavy dieback, losing only a few leaves on the windward side, and shrugged off lab temperatures that killed 'Mystery' outright. This gardenia holds reliably through Zone 7 and has been pushed colder by gardeners willing to offer a sheltered wall. For anyone in the Middle Atlantic who has watched a gardenia die to the ground every hard winter, that difference is the whole point.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen there is the bloom, the reason to grow any gardenia. Three-inch double flowers, creamy white aging toward ivory, with the thick velvet texture and the heavy, carrying perfume the species is famous for. The first flush runs through early summer; what sets this selection apart is the encore, a genuine second wave in late summer that often carries on until frost. A mature plant settles in around four to five feet, rounded and densely clothed in glossy dark green leaves that hold all winter, so the shrub earns a place in the border even in the months without flowers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart shade suits 'Chuck Hayes', and in the warm South an eastern exposure is fine. Where winters are sharp, give the opposite: a north or west aspect sheltered from early morning sun, which thaws cold-stunned foliage too fast and ruptures the leaf. Site the plant once and well, and the same patch of air will carry the same perfume every June for decades. Gardenia jasminoides is native to eastern Asia; this particular form is pure Tidewater Virginia, and one of the few that will follow a gardener north.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057872867443,"sku":"GARD-JASM-CHUC-HAYE-01G","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Gardeniajasminoides_ChuckHayes.jpg?v=1779829467"},{"product_id":"gardenia-sp-kleims-hardy","title":"Gardenia jasminoides 'Kleim's Hardy'","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Kleim's Hardy' is a small, mounding evergreen gardenia with lustrous black-green leaves and single, star-shaped ivory flowers, and one of the most cold-tolerant gardenias in the trade. Where most gardenias pile petal on petal, this one opens flat and simple, five or six broad ivory petals flaring around a boss of creamy-yellow stamens, and carries the same heavy, sweet perfume in a lighter, cleaner frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe plant earned a following after reports that a specimen came through 3 degrees F in Raleigh, North Carolina untouched. Dr. Michael Dirr, in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, has questioned whether the gardenia is truly that hardy, and honesty says the jury is still out at the very cold edge; even so, 'Kleim's Hardy' ranks among the toughest of a tender tribe and is well worth a sheltered try where ordinary gardenias will not survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGardenia jasminoides comes from the warm woodlands of China and Japan, where the plant has been grown for well over a thousand years and the fragrant flowers scent tea and perfume. In the Southern garden 'Kleim's Hardy' behaves like the rest of the clan, wanting a semi-shaded site with fertile, acid soil, and makes an excellent container plant given winter protection in cold areas.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLow and neat, reaching only two or three feet, 'Kleim's Hardy' suits the front of a border, an edging along a path, a foundation bed, or a large pot by a door where the summer fragrance can be met at close range. Plant among camellias, azaleas, and other acid-lovers, give steady moisture and a cool root run, and enjoy a gardenia scaled for small spaces and stretched a little further into the cold.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057872998515,"sku":"GARD-JASM-KLEI-HARD-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Gardeniajasminoides_Kleim_sHardy_Woodlandersfront.jpg?v=1730235530"},{"product_id":"gardenia-sp-variegata","title":"Gardenia sp. 'Variegata'","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis striking, rather upright gardenia is a Woodlanders introduction that has since become more widely available, grown less for bloom than for the boldly marked leaves. Each glossy leaf is splashed and margined in strong yellow, so the whole shrub reads as a soft fountain of gold and green, a rare thing among broadleaf evergreens and a bright note for a shaded corner.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe plant came to us many years ago from Brookside Gardens in Maryland, who had found the variegated form in Japan, and has proven a durable, good-natured grower. Single white flowers appear now and then, carrying the familiar gardenia sweetness, but bloom is sparse and beside the point; the foliage is the reason to grow this one, holding color and polish the year round.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGardenia jasminoides comes from the warm woodlands of China and Japan, long cultivated for fragrance, dye, and medicine, and the variegated form asks for the same easy conditions as any gardenia: acid, well-drained soil, steady moisture, and shelter from hard frost. This selection has proven hardy here to at least 11 degrees F, and takes happily to a cool greenhouse where winters are colder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUse the variegated gardenia where the gold-marked leaves can light a dim spot: the front of a shaded border, a foundation bed, a large container, or a conservatory. Give a little shade to keep the pale variegation from scorching in fierce sun, and pair with dark-leaved companions that throw the gold forward. Grown for foliage first, this is an evergreen that earns a place every month of the year.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057873096819,"sku":"GARD-VARI-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/IMG-2594.heic?v=1786682967"},{"product_id":"gardenia-sp-daruma","title":"Gardenia sp. 'Daruma'","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Daruma' is a compact, dwarf gardenia, a dense little evergreen that holds a tidy dome the year round and fits the tight corners where a full-sized gardenia would crowd. The name recalls the round, weighted Daruma dolls of Japan, and the plant keeps a similarly rounded, low habit that needs almost no shaping.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough the warm season the shrub opens single white flowers, small and clean-faced against the dark foliage, carrying the sweet, far-reaching perfume the gardenia is loved for. The bloom runs from late spring through summer and sometimes returns intermittently into fall, so even a small plant gives a long season of scent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe leaves are the frame that holds the show together: glossy, leathery, deep green, and evergreen, dense enough to read as a finished, well-kept mound even out of bloom. Gardenia jasminoides hails from the warm woodlands of China and Japan, where the plant has been cultivated for well over a thousand years for its fragrance and its dye-giving fruit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUse 'Daruma' where a small evergreen with big fragrance is wanted: a low edging, the front of a shaded border, a foundation bed, or a container by a door or a seat. Give acid, well-drained soil, part shade to sun, and steady moisture, and pair with camellias, azaleas, and other acid-lovers. In cold areas grow the plant in a pot that can move under cover for winter.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057873260659,"sku":"GARD-DARU-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1152.jpg?v=1720138259"},{"product_id":"gardenia-jasminoides-yellow","title":"Gardenia jasminoides \"Yellow\"","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe gardenia needs little introduction to a Southern gardener: glossy evergreen leaves and thick, waxen, intensely fragrant flowers that perfume a whole summer evening. This selection, grown simply as the Yellow gardenia, adds a twist, for the blooms open creamy white and deepen with age to a rich butter-yellow, so a single shrub can carry both colors at once against the dark foliage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGardenia jasminoides belongs to the coffee and madder family, Rubiaceae, and comes originally from the warm woodlands of China and Japan, where the plant has been cultivated for well over a thousand years. The genus honors Alexander Garden, the Charleston physician and naturalist who corresponded with Linnaeus, so the name carries a thread of Southern history even though the plant itself came from the far side of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the homeland the gardenia is far more than an ornament. The ripe orange-red fruit, known as zhi zi, has long yielded a clear yellow dye for cloth and food and holds an old and honored place in traditional Chinese medicine, while the fragrant flowers scent tea and perfume. In the Southern garden the plant is grown chiefly for that perfume and for the cool contrast of pale flowers on lacquered green.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSite the Yellow gardenia where the fragrance can be met at close range, by a door, a path, a porch, or an open window, as an evergreen specimen, a low informal hedge, or a foundation shrub. The plant wants warmth, acid soil, steady moisture, and shelter from hard frost, and repays the attention with months of scent. Pair with camellias, azaleas, and other acid-lovers, and give a little afternoon shade where summers are fierce.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057873555571,"sku":"GARD-JASM-YELL-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-368.jpg?v=1720138266"},{"product_id":"gardenia-sp-from-china","title":"Gardenia sp. (from China)","description":"\u003cp\u003eEvery collection has its unnamed treasures, and this gardenia is one of ours: a plant grown from seed gathered on Emei Shan, the great sacred mountain of Sichuan in southwestern China. The species has not been pinned down, but the plant is unmistakably a gardenia, upright in habit and clothed in long, narrow, glossy dark green leaves quite unlike the broad foliage of the common Cape jasmine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the warm season the shrub opens single white flowers, clean and simple against the deep green leaves, with the sweet gardenia fragrance the genus is loved for. The upright, well-furnished frame gives structure to a planting even out of bloom, and the narrow foliage lends a finer texture than most gardenias bring.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGardenia is a genus of the warm woodlands of Asia and Africa, and this mountain form from Emei Shan hints at a constitution suited to cooler, moister conditions than the lowland kinds. As a wild-collected, still unidentified introduction, the plant is offered in a spirit of shared discovery, and we welcome grower reports on hardiness, size, and bloom to help fill in what the label cannot yet say.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSite this gardenia as a collector's specimen or an upright evergreen accent in a sheltered, part-shaded spot with acid, well-drained soil and steady moisture. Pair with camellias, azaleas, and other acid-loving woodland companions, give shelter from hard frost, and enjoy the pleasure of growing a fragrant mystery straight from a famous Chinese mountain.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057873850483,"sku":"GARD-CHIN-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1437.jpg?v=1720138276"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/gardenia.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}