need help with Thunberg's Gardenia

I have a sizeable Thunberg's Gardenia. It was living here when we bought the house 10 years ago. It had an medium size tree growing right next to it. I cut the tree out and it took a few years for it to bloom. I have figured out that if it gets enough rain or deep watering for 3 days, it will bloom for 3 days a week later. No sign of any fruit or any attempt of. Does it need more watering? We give it MG occasionally. We live in zone 9b.

I have tried some cuttings with no luck and thinking of trying air layering. I would like to share this plant as not many people seem to have it and it is a nice smelling flower.

I just recently found out what it was and any help or info would be appreciated.

Thanks

Dane

Here is how one person says he roots Gardenia cuttings:

QUOTE: "In the last two years, I have rooted hundreds of gardenia cuttings to give away, and have not lost even one. I use cuttings with three sets of leaves, usually about four inches long. I use a mix of 2 parts of top soil, 2 parts peat moss, and 1 part sand. I wet the peat moss ahead of time so that it absorbs water and stays damp.

I use clear soda bottles. I cut the bottles in half about three inches from the bottom, poke drain holes in the bottom ribs with an ice pick. Put about two inches of mix in the bottom part , insert the cutting with the bottom set of leaves stripped off, and a cut made just below the lowest node. Put the top of the bottle back on the bottom by gently squeezing the top of the bottom part. You now have a mini greenhouse.

You can see when the roots have grown by looking thru the clear plastic. Put in a bright spot, but don't let the sun shine on them, because it will bake the cutting. You might devise a way to hang them under a tree near the branches so the sun doesn't hit them. In about three weeks you will see roots, it helps if the weather is hot, in the ninties."

Thanks KayJones,

I've been using paper milk cartons for the bottom and soda bottoms for the GH. It would be nice to see the roots. I'll try your soil mix, mine might be a bit heavy. It's still in the 90's here so I'll keep trying.

Thanks again

Dane

You are welcome, Dane, but it's not my 'recipe' - I found it on another site and quoted it.

That flower looks a lot like one that I bought as "Gardenia Vietnam Star". However, the pistil looks a bit different. The flower's about 100 millimetres across. I haven't tried taking cuttings off it but a seed pod fell off the other day so I'm going to try planting the seed.

Your right about the flower looking the same except yours has 7 petals, mine has 8. Just checked the Plant files again.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/58378/
This one has 9. Hmmm. Does yours have 3 leaves or branches at each node? What does your seed pod look like?

Now I'm wondering if it is a Thunberg's (Starry) gardenia.

This message was edited Sep 16, 2010 5:00 PM

The whole plant picture. Needs trimming.

It's not guaranteed to be correct if it's on plantfiles. Googling images resulted in plants with 6 petal flowers, while other photos had flowers with 8 petals. Even saw one photo with 10 petals. It could be a variable species.

Mine has 2 to 3 leaves at the nodes. Mostly if there's a branch or flower bud it's usually only 2 leaves. Again, this seems variable.

Unlike the seed pods in the photos I googled, mine have fluted seed pods that are relatively small, 50 to 55 millimetres long. Seeds are fairly small, about the same size as sesame seed.

Ok, we have the same plant, diffrent variety. The good people at Plant Files Id'ed this for me 2 months ago. Before that it was a "I think it's a" gardenia.

What are the flowering habits of yours? Do you get alot of moisture? Wish I could get a seed pod.

Thanks

Dane

Dane, I checked back on my photos, here's one of the same plant taken in early August this year, flower has 6 petals.The flower today has 7 petals. There's a few more buds getting ready to open up. Will be interesting to see how they look.

The seed pod on mine is vastly different to the ones shown when I googled Gardenia thunbergia. I thought I'd taken photos of my seed pod but if I did then I can't find them now.

Mine is still in a pot, haven't had time to plant it out yet. So it's sitting where it gets the automatic irrigation twice a day. It only gets a bit of early morning sun but about 10:30 am it gets full sun, up to about 1:00 pm. Then it's in shade the rest of the day.

It seems to need more water than our native Gardenias here. We have 15 species and subspecies of Gardenia locally, not including Kailarsenia suffruticosa which until only recently was Gardenia suffruticosa.

WOW, I impressed. Must smell good in Australia.

Sounds like I need to water it more regularly.

When I prun it I plan on cutting main branches in half and thin the center. Is this correct for gardenias?

Last spring I had to break some bricks, someone had placed around it and the roots grew thru the holes. It's had a hard time and I would like to see it do better.

Thanks a million

Dane