Re: Gardenia thunbergia
Tim wrote:
>Someone's recently convinced me to try this in the UK - 'should be
>perfectly hardy in a warm shady corner in a sheltered seaside garden'
>- not that I've tried my poor wee plant (all of a foot high) in the
>inhospitable great outdoors as yet. Now, Dave, tell us that it grows
>to be a tree in Torquay and flowers 12 months of the year?!
I wish I could Tim, but mine is barely 30" high so it will be some
years before it becomes a tree. It is also a bit more reluctant to
flower compared with G. jasminoides, which opened it's first double,
waxy white flowers nearly a moth ago. However, whereas it's more
tender cousin seems to ignore light frosts and then seems to go into
temporary decline until warm weather encourages a flush of new growth,
G. thunbergii doesn't go through this seeming 'spring decline' and
just slowly gets on with it. As far as flowering goes, so far it has
had the odd bloom open and judging by last year's performance, should
carry on until November at least.
Dave Poole
TORQUAY UK
