05/24/2026
If you know much about me at all, there are a few things that might come to your mind about me. They are as follows: I love the Lord, my wife, living on our family farm and flowers. All kinds of flowers! Annuals, perennials, indoor and outdoor flowers. Every September, I make my annual pilgrimage by transporting my countless tropical and semitropical plants from the garden back into my home either to over-winter in front of a window or in some shaded alcove for the duration of the soon to arrive icy season. I always dread this project. Because it is the beginning of my weekly "watering on Wednesdays"( the only way i can remember the task), my weekly bug inspections and other regular maintaince of these living plants.
A bane of my existence seems to be a plant I share a love/hate relationship with. I am speaking of the Gardenia Jasminodes. Or better known as simply the tropical Gardenia found most every spring at your local garden shop. The plants are usually of blooming age and not that expensive. The demands this sensitive tropical plant imposes upon me are great. They are acid loving, sensitive to extreme light and inconsistencies in root moisture. Oh, and did I mention insects? Not at all like the window of African Violets that quietly bloom in my window nearly all year round with minimal care.
I am a third generation flower lover in my family. But the Gardenia may spell my doom.
I relocated my ancient potted bush back outside about a month ago. I moved it to a morning sunlight, afternoon shade location near my water source. And here we go again. That glorious, white on white, 5 inch blossom, that smells of the finest of perfumes. For a month or so, this flower is, for me, the Cadillac of flower blossoms in our garden.
The question for me is whether or not the sensitive nature of the Gardenia justifies the beauty and fragrance of this flower?
Maybe it would make better sense to just purchase a new bush every year in the spring and treat it as though it were an annual and discard it in the autumn after the first hard frost. Or-- maybe better yet, convince a next door neighbor to like growing a Gardenia bush and I stop by regularly in the spring and enjoy that beauty and fragrance while drinking coffee at their home!
The image below captures the fresh blossom of my Gardenia today. Can you almost smell the wonderful fragrance?
