For nine years, each season has brought a fragrant outburst of gardenia flowers. Each year there would be maybe 50-60 blooms each season. Then one year, I noticed it was infested, which I treated in the off-season. The next year, and in years since, it produced hundreds of blossoms each year—until 2023.
The polar vortex turned our evergreen gardenia into a brown, shriveled skeleton, with no sign of life I could discern. Somewhere I read that if one scratched a limb and it was green underneath, the plant was still alive. I tried it and saw green. Today, our gardenia is fighting back, and is covered with new growth. I doubt there will be flowers this year, but at least it is green. Maybe next year…
