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Nature’s Perfect Simplicity, The Gardenia

The Gardenia is a very unique flower whose beauty I greatly enjoy, and I have learned again and again through the years that it is highly valued by the women in my life. The Gardenia is one of the most simple, yet beautiful flowers in nature, and its fragrance rivals its beauty. The flower is not only stunning and fragrant, but the rich, green, glossy foliage is a showstopper as well. As a florist, I have enjoyed the Gardenia blossom in corsages, as wedding flowers and as houseplants, but have always considered it a plant grown in the warm, southern United States. Only recently have I learned that it can be grown outside in our gardens here in the Pacific Northwest.

In my many years of teaching woodworking, designing and building furniture, as well as owning Gallery Florist, with my wife Janet, (the real florist in our family) I have come to believe that the most beautiful designs are the most simple. The Gardenia’s simple, yet beautiful lines and curves are, in my opinion, ones of nature’s greatest designs, and its rich fragrance makes it a favorite of anyone who enjoys nature’s beauty.

As a cut flower the Gardenia is available year round, as they are grown in greenhouses. You won’t find the Gardenia on a stem, as you would most cut flowers. They are available by the single blossom and are fragile to handle. If you should touch the white, cloth-like petals of the blossom, they will bruise easily and may quickly discolor. As a cut flower they are generally used in corsages, in bridal bouquets and are especially elegant when floating in a crystal bowl.

Because of the tenderness of the blossom, they come from the grower in small paper boxes, three blooms to a box.

Your florist will take great care in tenderly handling the bloom and often will cover each bloom with wet paper and a solution called Crowing Glory, to keep the bloom from bruising. As the petals of the blossom open from the bud, they do so in an interesting whirling effect, that is very unique in blossoms and reminds me of the spiral of a beautiful seashell.

With over 200 species of gardenias worldwide, they can be found growing in most tropical regions, yet their roots are from China, where they first came into prominence around 1000 AD. However, many of the species do not look like what we think of when we picture the Gardenia.

The Gardenia we know in this country is originally from China, but its name is rooted in South Carolina, by way of South Africa and England. According to Richard Goodman in Dr. Garden’s Flower: The Biography of the Gardenia, the plant was “discovered” growing in South Africa by a sea captain and taken to England in the late 1740’s. It was thought to be a type of Jasmine, and even today it is often referred to as the “Cape Jasmine”. The Royal Society of London, after several years and much controversy, determined it to be a new species. The Gardenia was later named after a noted physician from Charleston South Carolina, Dr. Alexander Garden, well know for his work saving thousands of lives in the small pox epidemic of 1760.

The Gardenia’s fragrance is in a class by itself. Treasured for thousands of years, it is used in many of today’s popular perfumes. The fragrance can almost overpower you when the flower is left in a small, confined room, but it most certainly makes its presence known in any setting.

Over the years I have had two unique experiences I cherish with the Gardenia. The first is that I set a goal to craft a jewelry box for my wife, and both of our daughters, when they reached their teenage years. As part of that goal I decided to carve their favorite flower out of exotic hardwoods on the top of each jewelry box.

Our youngest daughter, Krista, chose the Gardenia for her jewelry box. It was a challenge to find a wood with a brilliant enough color to capture the pure white of the Gardenia. After a number of experiments with different woods, a friend gave me a piece of Holly from a tree in his yard. Though it was not an exotic hardwood, after bleaching the Holly numerous times,

I finally achieved the white needed for the blossom. To make the leaves I used black Macassar Ebony to highlight the bloom on the box, which was made of a radiant Hawaiian Koa wood. Having made Janet and the girls’ jewelry boxes, I have now completed a jewelry box for our oldest granddaughter who is thirteen, with three more granddaughters who will become teenagers in the next few years!

My second Gardenia experience involves my wife Janet’s love of Gardenias. No, I didn’t carve a Gardenia on her jewelry box, as she wanted a purple Iris instead. When she turned forty, she told me that on her fiftieth birthday she wanted to sit in our hot tub, surrounded by floating Gardenias. I didn’t give it much thought until she was forty-nine, but she mentioned it several more times during those intervening years.

As single blooms of Gardenias are most certainly beautiful, they are not inexpensive. As her birthday grew nearer, I madly began trying to calculate how many Gardenias it would take to cover the surface of the hot tub, and what it might cost. Though we own Gallery Florist, Gardenias are not cheap, even at wholesale cost. I contacted our grower in California and told him what I needed and why. Because we had been good customers of theirs, they shipped me a huge case of mini-Gardenias and all I had to pay was the shipping! Needless to say, it was a surprise for her, and a real hit. With all those Gardenias in the warm, bubbly water of our hot tub, I think you could probably have smelled their sweet fragrance in most of Clark County that evening!

We often carry Gardenias as houseplants at Gallery Florist, and they are very popular. (One of the problems I had in writing this article was that they kept selling the plants before I could get a chance to get a picture of them blooming.) As a houseplant they need the sunniest of places in your home. If possible, set them outdoors during summer, ensuring the plant receives fertilizer regularly and is kept MOIST at all times. Bring the plant indoors when nights get chilly in late summer. To initiate good bud formation, keep them cooler in the house until December, when the night temperature is lowered to about 66 to 68°. Then they should be kept warmer again with frequent feeding and watering, which is necessary in order to nourish the developing flowers.

Just the fragrance alone is worth the care needed for your Gardenia, but the blooms are spectacular and the brilliant, bright green foliage looks almost artificial, because it is so shiny and glossy. Occasionally we get tree Gardenias, which range from one foot tall up to three feet in height. Most of the plants available locally at florists come from Canada, where the government subsidizes the cost of the natural gas used to heat the greenhouses. We do have at least one local greenhouse that brings in the plants and hardens them for local florists. This helps to assure your Gardenia will grow well for you, if properly cared for.

Our brides at Gallery Florist love the Gardenia in bridal bouquets, for not only are they a spectacular blossom in their bouquet, their fragrance gives their bridal bouquet an extra special touch. The pure white of the blossom is the symbol of innocence and purity, much like that of their wedding gown.

Recently I learned that we are able to grow Gardenias outdoors in our gardens here in Clark County. An Oregon company, Oregon Gardenias, is selling Gardenias that are hardy in the climates of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Northern California (zones 6 - 9). Their Gardenia Jasminoides was developed in Virginia. Not only do they claim to be cold tolerant, but say it has another solid benefit, they produce more flowers than the southern varieties. Compared to common southern gardenias, which produce about 250 flowers a year, this one should produce about 1000. Another variety that Oregon Gardenias sell is Kleim's Hardy, which they say has a higher tolerance for heat, which has a direct influence on its flowering capability. This variety also grows well in full sun. Their web site, www.oregongardenias.com, has mail orders sales as well as listing a number of nurseries locally that carry their Gardenias. A couple of weeks before Valentine’s Day I visited Portland Nursery, and was able to purchase a Kleim’s Hardy Gardenia. Though it was February at the time, it had a number of buds. The leaves and buds are much smaller than the florists Gardenias I am used to, but we are anxious to see how it grows and to see if the leaves and flowers rival those we sell as cut flowers.

The Gardenia is a popular flower for arrangements, corsages, bridal bouquets and houseplants and its fragrance is found in many popular perfumes. It’s simple beauty and purity have been cherished for centuries, but if you are thinking of a Gardenia in a corsage or to float in a bowl, order your Gardenia about a week before you need it, as few florists always have them in stock. Due to their fragility, the cut flower Gardenia is usually a special order. The outdoor Gardenia I bought was a Valentine’s Day gift from my wife and I to our daughter Krista, the one with the Gardenia jewelry box. The Gardenia is a fairly expensive flower, but in my opinion, it is certainly well worth the investment. I know that the women in my life have made it quite plain to me that this is true for them!