Gardenia jasminoides 'Kleim's Hardy'

'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.

The 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.

Gardenia 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.

Low 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.