You should be able to keep them in small pots over the winter, 6 inchs or less. If they are barely rooted cuttings, I'd probably stick them in 4 inch pots. Be sure to select your potting mix with care or make your own. You'll want something very porous.

You need to know that gardenias don't really like being grown inside the typical home, so do the best you can to find the coolest, most humid location you can. They just don't make good houseplants.

Bama, being a transplanted Californian, gardenia lover, and masochist to boot, I'm constantly reaching for the brass ring of success with this plant. As rhizo suggests, there's not a lot of reason for optimism. Still, I urge you to try. Here's what I would do in your place (but first allow me a gripe: I do wish folks would indicate where they're gardening or at least which ZONE they're in; it often helps when giving advice...OK, gripe over):

 Plant more than one cutting in a pot, maybe two or three cuttings, in a smaller pot, again as rhizo suggests. I would use a potting soil that drains well and that contains peat moss (for the acid; gardenias are acid lovers) and, if possible, some good quality leafmold, which can be hard to come by.

 Give it plenty of light. I grow mine in a south-facing attached greenhouse that here in Minnesota gets pretty cool in the depths of winter. But they shouldn't get too cold; they don't like that either! My space gets down to 45 or 50 and they're not especially happy with that. 60° suits them better.

 Set the pot on a wide saucer with pebbles in it, for humidity. But the bottom of the pot can't be standing in water. They don't like wet feet or dry air.

 FinallyÂand this in my experience is crucial: water them only with unchlorinated water. This means "spring water" from jugs you can buy or, in my case, hoarded jugs of rainwater collected during the fall. This single hint that I learned some years back has meant the difference between gardenias that flourish (more or less) and even bloom a little and ones that sit there, sulk, and eventually die.

They're the fussiest plants I've ever tried to grow, but sometimes that one gorgeous, sweet-smelling flower in the middle of winter is worth all the trouble.

I hope this helps!

gerystpaul,
This is one plant that I would love to grow but have repeatedly failed.
I live in lahore Pakistan, Very hot in summer and milde winters.
My plants in garden soil just sit there, sulk, and eventually die.
Please contact me at ( brigarif@hotmail.com ) if you think you can help me.
Arif

Hi, Arif. I don't know what more I can add to the previous post, but I would definitely NOT use "garden soil," whatever that may be.

I use the following mixture, which seems to work well. All amounts by volume and approximate:

5 parts bark fines (still fairly coarse, conducive to good draining), 2 parts leaf mold, 2 parts peat moss, 1 part perlite. But you could probably use any decent "potting soil" available in your part of the world, e.g., the kind made for African Violets. Plants aren't all that fussy, but the medium needs to drain well and be slightly acidic (for gardenias).

I should think you could have great success with these plants in Lahore. Gary

Thanks
Arif