Specialty Gardening: Mitriostigma Axillare "African Gardenia", 1 by smileclick

smileclick wrote:
I saw some established plants in the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens today (it's early spring here). The African Gardenias were flowering very well, even though they were heavily shaded by a large tree - I've attached a picture with flower close-up.
The tallest was about 6' /1.8m and they had an upright habit. I couldn't smell much fragrance, but they were selling rooted cuttings in their nursery and the one in flower had a strong fragrance similar to fragapani or moonflower. So I suspect you need higher temperatures in the shade or direct sun on the flowers as well as moist soil to get the fragrance wafting.

Given their characteristics; long flowering, shade loving, fragrant and upright growing, they make an ideal indoor or balcony plant.

This message was edited Sep 11, 2015 9:32 PM