Often considered to be difficult to grow, Gardenia jasminoides is a very attractive plant with deep green foliage and flowers that will fill your home or conservatory with a very heady jasmine fragrance.

If a few rules are followed they are in fact quite easy plants and should not fail you. Firstly, they like humidity so stand the pot on a gravel tray filled with either gravel or clay granules and keep that toped up with water just below the top of the gravel. Mist spray but only when the flowers are not open (spraying when open will ruin them) and keep the compost moist but not wet during late spring through to mid autumn. Keep it a bit dryer through the winter. Use rainwater for both watering and mist spraying.

If re-potting plant in an acid compost and feed regularly with a fertilizer specifically for acid loving container plants fortnightly from March through to October. Position in as light a spot as possible but out of any direct sunlight during the spring, summer and autumn moving to a south facing area for the winter. Lightly prune when flowering has ceased if required. Maximum height and spread if unpruned is about 1.5 metres.

Not only can it be grown in the home but they are proving to be quite cold tolerant in milder parts of the UK. Our own plant at home has survived -5c for short periods with little damage and although it was completely cut back by the -10c we had in January 2023 it started to re-shoot from the base in May. If growing outdoors plant out once all frosts have passed in a sheltered, shaded position with a moist but free draining, humus rich acid soil. 

Newly potted rooted cutting in a 9cm pot.

Additional photos by By KENPEI - KENPEI's photo, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=920531