What are you feeding it? If the fertilizer is high in nitrogen (the first number of the 3-number designation) then it may be just putting too much energy into vegetative growth to bloom. Most shrubs don't need much fertilizer at all to do well. A soil test to see what's going on with the nutrients would be a good starting point. Your local cooperative extension office can tell you how to take the soil test and send it to VA Tech.

That said, some plants are just slow to start blooming. But I have a gardenia started from a cutting a couple of years ago that put on one bloom last summer. Surprised the heck out of me!

Good luck.

I thought gardenia's needed part shade. Could it be getting too much sun?

Try coffee grounds as my Chuck Hayes, Kleims and August Beauty never seemed to bloom well until I gave them a nice layer of coffee grounds around their root zone. Now they look very healthy and bloom like crazy even into December if it is mild.

Hi Susan,

I'm in Alexandria and put two gardenias in my yard, one in direct sun and the other in partial shade. The one in direct sun limped along and never did anything while the one in shade grew in bloomed. After three years of watching this, I finally moved the one in sun near the other one, and it's doing much better. I'm assuming in my case it's because of the sun issue. But, I think you should just trying moving it to another location. Plants are funny that way. You never know quite where they'll be happy.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Patrick