It is very easy to root Gardenia cuttings. Maybe you could root a few then you wouldn't feel so bad about having to get rid of the big one? I took two cuttings from one in an elderly lady's yard in Mobile last summer and both of them rooted. I just made sure to keep them out of the hot sun.

Yes, indeed they're easy to root! I've got three growing in pots that I plan to plant later that I got from a friend who left some pruned pieces of his gardenia in a shallow pile somewhere, and they rooted on their own!
I've got one gardenia growing in my garden in a raised bed, and it does beautifully, doesn't even get the black sooty leaves from white flies that I remember seeing on them as a child. I think gardenias need good drainage, so the raised bed may be at least one reason this gardenia has done so well.
Sherry

Thank you ladies I think thats what I will do and leave them potted this year and then figure out a good place for them when it cools back down

Amy in MS
Zone 9

They are all right about rooting cuttings for more plants. I had a large plant that was blown over in a bad wind and damaged, so I pruned it back to about 12 inches of the ground and replanted it in the same place and the next year it was 3 ft. tall and had i lot of blooms.