Other Names:  Cape Jasmine, Cape Jessamine

Description:

A large evergreen shrub featuring sweetly fragrant, elegant white double flowers, contrasted by deep green foliage; a wonderful garden or landscape accent plant that also makes a fine hedge; water more often in extreme heat

Ornamental Features

Fortuniana Gardenia features showy fragrant white flowers at the ends of the branches from mid spring to mid 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

Fortuniana 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. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Insects
• Disease

Fortuniana Gardenia is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use

Planting & Growing

Fortuniana Gardenia will grow to be about 8 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 8 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. You may want to keep it away from hot, dry locations that receive direct afternoon sun or which get reflected sunlight, such as against the south side of a white wall. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. To help this plant achive its best flowering performance, periodically apply a flower-boosting fertilizer from early spring through into the active growing season. 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 both summer and winter to conserve soil moisture and protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.