Nonbryan,
There is nothing a gardenia hates more than being stuck in a pot.
You live in a warm zone, so you must put it back in the garden.
Before you do, find a nice spot for it around a tree, so it will get some afternoon shade, for the really hot months.
If the shade is around 2pm til dusk, it would be perfect.
Then, add some soil conditioner and some composted manure (or a little peat moss if you can't find soil conditioner) to the native soil and mix in it real good.
Take the plant, rinse the roots off and plant it in the hole with your ammended soil.
If you have red clay soil, plant the gardenia up on a little mound of your ammended soil so the plant sits higher up for good drainage.
Don't feed it for one month. You just stressed it out.
Mulch, mulch, mulch it good, but don't let the mulch touch the stem of the plant itself.
Water it good after transplanting.
Then don't water it again for a week.
You'll kill it by overwatering it very easily.
DOn't spray the water directly on the plant ever.
Water in morning only once a week, spraying water on the bottom of the plant.
In one month, which will be beginning of May, fertilize with Miracle Grow azela and Rhodo fertilizer.
Half strength. A little goes a long way.
It will get yellow leaves after you transplant it, that is normal.
DOn't panic, it reacts to stress that way.
Stop fertilizing in September, so that will be it's last meal.
If you need more mulch by then, add some more for the winter.
Placing a water feature like a little fountain nearby the gardenia will help provide humidity, unless it is humid where you live.
Gardenias aren't hard to grow in the ground at all.
Good luck to you, and I hope your wife is happy this summer with it.
(by the way, you can get what you need for the soil and food at HD)

I just threw my evil gardenia off the deck. It kept losing it's leaves and had one big bud on it. I was mad at it anyway. I knew it would never bloom, it was just teasing me, waiting till I expected the bud to open and then it would make that bud turn yellow and fall off, I just know it!!

Some people say you have to sacrifice a chicken to it. I guess I'll try that with the next doggone plant I buy.....

Butterfly4u,

I have to say that it was a very kind thing what you did. You took the time, along with meticulously writing the details to help out a fellow member..

It is people like you that this forums continues to need!

Now people have a thread to come to in the same predicament...In fact, I copy and pasted what you wrote and sent it off to a friend of mine dealing with a planting issue with his gardenia in Florida.
He is going to plant his denia tonight as you directed, and thanks you!!!

In fact, when I go to visit my house in Puerto Rico, I am going to do the same as you suggested, considering the dirt in my yard is claylike and hard as a rock..You literally need an ax, and a pick to break up the soil...

Mike..:-)

Merciepoo!!!

lololololololo....I miss you by the way..

Oh ya, it is a headless chicken in a bag with 3 pennies! And you toss it at next to the problem area!! That is what they do in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica!!lol

Mike,
Thank you very much for the kind words, just trying to help poster who sounds like he genuinely wants to please his wife.
Mersipoo, great to hear from you! You must be getting the planting bug, you had a long hard winter in PA.
Remember I told you that my next gardenia would be a "frist love"? Well, I'm looking. Think I'll take a ride to the nursery in the next couple of weeks and see if they have any yet. Here we go, another growing season. Oh, by the way, if you have any that blooms, post a pic. I'll do the same. (I love your posts, you make me laugh out loud)
Happy Gardening All!