Monday, June 21, 2010

Gardenia 'Michael'....This plant has lived through two consecutive USDA Zone 7 winter with no visible damage

There are other "hardy" Gardenias, by which I pretty much mean hardy in Zone 7. There's 'Kleim's Hardy', but it produces small single flowers that lack the powerful classic gardenia fragrance. And there's 'Chuck Hayes' that's supposed to be very hardy (6b) and has nice flowers, fragrant, but not the size of 'Michael'  This plant, G. 'Michael', looks just like a florist Gardenia; the leaves are full sizes and so are the flowers with a full complement of petals. It could be the darned standard that I've dragged in and out lo these 30 years. This one is growing downhill from the red pagoda in the Asian Collections.

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