I've tried and failed with "hardy" Gardenias. Oh, well.

I got a kleims hardy and a chuck hayes. They do fine outside for me. I'd cover if there were to be freezing rain forecast, but they take plain cold or snow just fine. I saw a couple new introductions last year. "Snow in summer" and "crown jewel". The crown jewel is a cross between kleims and chuck hayes. Supposed to good to zone 6 for sure, maybe even a warm 5b according to the propogator. May have to try one this year.

Normal gardenias will melt below 10F, IMO.

Cool, I'll plant mine this spring and take my chances.

KrisK, which zone are you in?

The kleims one seems to grow small and has simple flowers, compared to the normal house plant variety.
It also bloomed outside in a pot for me all at once then lost its flowers. Is that typical for you in your climate?

Are any of the varieties you mentioned, larger, or have better flowers than the kleims?

I'm 7a, but we must've done something right the last few years, as we have had 8a minimums. My kleims is kind of range-y or leggy. It does have small daisy type single blooms, but blooms off and on from spring til fall, when it gets orange seed pods. If it dropped flowers I'd speculate too much/little water. Chuck hayes has the typical double blooms, and burns more in winter than my kleims but also gets more winter sun. I cant say about the "snow in summer" but I read from the creator of "crown jewel" web page that its more like gardenia "frostproof" in that it spreads out versus getting tall.

http://www.crownjewelgardenia.com/info.htm looks interesting to me. I've noticed theyre popping up on eBay and the like so I hope to hear more real world accounts before buying one myself.

One year ago, I planted a Frostproof and a Chuck Hayes. Both flowered and have doubled in size already. No protection at all and planted on the northeast side near the house. I checked on them during the recent cold snaps and they look unconcerned.

I highly recommend these cultivars. They look and smell just as good as the tropical variety.

Thanks for the help!

I'll give these a try when I see them for sale.