Plant, Tree & Shrub Library

Description:

A prolific bloomer with large, sweetly fragrant, elegant white flowers contrasted by deep green foliage; a wonderful garden accent plant that also makes a fine hedge; water more often in extreme heat

Ornamental Features

First Love® Gardenia features showy fragrant white flowers at the ends of the branches from late spring to early summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. It has dark green evergreen foliage. The glossy pointy leaves remain dark green throughout the winter.

Landscape Attributes

First Love® Gardenia is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting bees and butterflies to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

First Love® Gardenia is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use

Planting & Growing

First Love® Gardenia will grow to be about 8 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 6 feet. It has a low canopy, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 30 years.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.