Gardenia
Gardenia jasminoides
Grown for intensely fragrant, creamy white flowers from late spring into summer against glossy, dark evergreen leaves; plant it where the scent carries. Deer usually leave it alone. Give it morning sun and afternoon shade in acid, moist, well-drained soil, away from tree roots; whiteflies find stressed plants.
- Mature size
- 5 × 4.5 ft
- 1.5 × 1.4 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 8a–11b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- May–Jul
Gardenia at its mature size
A mature Gardenia grows 4 to 8 feet tall and 3 to 8 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, Clemson Extension.
Through the year
What Gardenia looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Aug–Apr
Glossy dark green leaves, no flowers.
In flower · May–Jul
Glossy dark green leaves with double white flowers.
Photos
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Growing Gardenia
- Grows well in
- The Southeast and California.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Hedge, small space, foundation planting, specimen, shade garden, deer resistant, and fragrant
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- China, Japan, and Taiwan
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Gardenia, that’s about 4.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Gardenia in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other gardenias
Double Mint GardeniaJubilation GardeniaGardeniaAll drawn to the same scale.