Hi T.P.
They are both beautiful. After looking at them for a few minutes I find that I prefer the first picture because I find that the white swirl of petals in the center of that picture is more appealing, at least to my eyes. I will be interested in what others have to say. Jerry

I'm with Jerry...I prefer picture #1 also. To me its just a prettier picture. Not that the second picture is bad.

Actually not all the blooms look idendical on a bush. Here is one very much like yours. Yet this gardenia produces large four inches bloom.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Wow! That's a huge and beautiful gardenia bloom you have there, longriver!

What gardenia specie/variety is it?

tropical

It is a selected large gardenia sent from China 10 years ago. No special name was given. They simply called it ' Da Ze Ze Hua'
Da=large
Ze Ze= a common name for gardenia
Hua= flower

Here are a couple of pictures I took of my gardenias...

sweetmichelia,

Beautiful flowers! Reminds me of white roses except for that sweet seductive scent.

tropical