Plant Library

Other Names:  Cape Jasmine, Cape Jessamine, Jasmin

Description:

An evergreen flowering plant with sweetly fragrant, elegant white flowers contrasted by deep green, glossy foliage; a wonderful garden accent plant or hedge in warm climates; a wonderful indoor accent plant

Features & Attributes

Gardenia features showy fragrant white flowers at the ends of the branches from late spring to early fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its attractive glossy pointy leaves emerge light green, turning dark green in colour throughout the year.

This is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen houseplant with an upright spreading habit of growth. This plant may benefit from an occasional pruning to look its best.

Planting & Growing

When grown indoors, Gardenia can be expected to grow to be about 8 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 6 feet. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 30 years. This houseplant will do well in a location that gets either direct or indirect sunlight, although it will usually require a more brightly-lit environment than what artificial indoor lighting alone can provide. It does best in average to evenly moist soil, but will not tolerate standing water. The surface of the soil shouldn't be allowed to dry out completely, and so you should expect to water this plant once and possibly even twice each week. Be aware that your particular watering schedule may vary depending on its location in the room, the pot size, plant size and other conditions; if in doubt, ask one of our experts in the store for advice. It is very fussy about its soil conditions and must be grown in rich, acidic soil to ensure success. Contact the store for specific recommendations on pre-mixed potting soil for this plant.

There are many factors that will affect the ultimate height, spread and overall performance of a plant when grown indoors; among them, the size of the pot it's growing in, the amount of light it receives, watering frequency, the pruning regimen and repotting schedule. Use the information described here as a guideline only; individual performance can and will vary. Please contact the store to speak with one of our experts if you are interested in further details concerning recommendations on pot size, watering, pruning, repotting, etc.

-- THIS IS A HOUSEPLANT AND IS NOT MEANT TO SURVIVE THE WINTER OUTDOORS IN OUR CLIMATE --