I showed my wife the suicidal gardenia thread, and after she stopped laughing we went out to get a couple gardenias. I think she did it just to torture me :-)

We got two monrovia "first love" gardenias. A big 30 dollar one, and a small "backup" for 10. We then hit walmart to get some perlite and miracid, and found a "gradenia spc." for 3 dollars and got that too. We planted the wally world plant first, and within 1 week it's single little flower bloomed and smelled wonderful. The 30 dollar gardenia is still in a pot basicly doing nothing - not declining and not really growing. The 10 dollar gardenia is planted and just starting to drop buds - but I think I might have forgot to water it one too many days. Apparently the walmart version thrives on the abuse, and the named monrovia ones maybe like a little more TLC. I guess we can just keep going out every few months to buy another 3 dollar walmart version and enjoy a bloom once in a while if we have too :)