Sweet Tea Gardenia

With massive white blooms standing out over rich, deep green foliage, this is the sort of formallooking, impressive shrub you’d expect to find at event venues. Especially at venues where a small plant would get easily overlooked, as this is no small gardenia. The plant is 45′ when fullgrown, which even outpaces the popular Double Mint. The blooms are about the size of tennis balls, and as double blooms they’re petal packed. But you don’t need to bring in the professional landscaper to get it settled into your garden. It is unprecedentedly hardy for a typically zone 911 plantwe’ve had this variety of warmweather loving gardenia survive in a container down to 46F, and containers don’t protect roots like planting in the ground can. It isn’t reliably hardy past zone 7, but we’re trialing it in zone 6 right now. You’ll love Sweet Tea’s dark foliage as a yearround backdrop in a border. You should also snip some of these gigantic blooms for a modern indoor arrangement, they’re deliciously scented. Gardenia jasminoides ‘PIIGAII’ PP27258