Gardenia sp. 'Daruma'

'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.

Through 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.

The 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.

Use '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.