Gardenia sp. (from China) prophouse and lovely backlit

and lovely backlit

where the soil runs sandy and red and winter knocks more gently

Once widespread across southern China

the tala blanco of northern Argentina

Gardenia sp. (from China) prophouse and lovely backlitEvery collection has its unnamed treasures, and this gardenia is one of ours: a plant grown from seed gathered on Emei Shan, the great sacred mountain of Sichuan in southwestern China. The species has not been pinned down, but the plant is unmistakably a gardenia, upright in habit and clothed in long, narrow, glossy dark green leaves quite unlike the broad foliage of the common Cape jasmine. In the warm season the shrub opens single white flowers,