I have these 4 varieties of hardy gardenia's in ground (crown jewel, kleim's hardy, frost proof, heaven scent). So far the best performer is 'crown jewel'. I bought it as 1gallon plant and it grew 2/2ft in 2 years. It survived 2 winters and stayed green and hardly lost any leaves. Kleim's hardy did not perform well but frost proof and heaven scent are also doing well. I prefer crown jewel over other two. I am in zone 7a. Here is the pic of my crown jewel the 1st year. I am looking for another new variety that is 'summer snow' now.

Thanks a lot! I just ordered mine from some nursery named Wild Things Grow. It was pretty cheap too and I was kind of hard pressed to find it online.

This post was edited by xdxdaustin on Sun, May 5, 13 at 10:34

I just bought one this spring and I was wondering how yours overwintered. I'm in zone 6b. When did it bloom?

I noticed some leaves were yellow. I wonder if that means it needs some iron chelate.

I can tell you that yellowing is very common with most gardenia up here in the north due to many factors, not always an iron problem..Be careful.

I am no longer buying them because unless there is one that bloom sets with having to have the perfect temps, I am no longer interested...

Good luck and as it warms up, you fertilize, make sure it's in a good porous mix, and allow temps to fall somewhere between 55 - 65 at night, they will look great.

MIke

My crown jewel plant pics I posted above died this year due to severe winter we had. The plant is hardy to my zone(7). I had the plant for 3 years and it did survive mild winter to zero degrees past 2 years. This past winter where we had snow for longer period where the temp went down below zero several times. This killed all my hardy gardenia's around my deck. I am still looking to buy a decent size plant as I love the look of it and the blooms are perfectly shaped with strong fragrance. I am good maintaining gardenias indoors as they are prone to root rot and other problems and are high manitenance.

Kandhi. Did you have to cover any of them at any time? Did they lose their leaves when they dud survive the winters and then regenerate new leaf growth?

I would love to try one we'll protected in the ground like let's say under a 55 gallon drum or wrapped in thick burlap. But I'm wondering if a plant like this can go into complete darkness until spring? Bare leafed of course.

Mike

I planted three Crown Jewels (3 gallon) in 2010. There wasn't any winter damage until this year. All three are showing signs of recovery, this one looks best. I think it was a Zone 7 winter here, except it was cold for an extended period of time. Also had Chuck Hayes and Kleim's Hardy (the parents of Crown Jewel) on the other side of the house that were killed.