A gardenia appeared in the front garden a couple of days ago. It doesn’t look like much now, but it was planted by Jiro, our landlord’s son who is a landscape gardener and sometimes works at the Meigetsuin temple and other places down the hill, attending to the famous hydrangeas and shōbu irises in the ‘secret’ back field – so I feel confident he has put it in the ideal place.
Is there any chance it will flower this year, or will I have to wait until next? The smell of gardenias in Japan is so raucously delicious I always find myself pinching them from neighbour’s gardens even though I know it is illegal. It will be ravishing to have a gardenia of one’s own.
The Black Narcissus 
I have a potted gardenia in my garden. It is fragrant but only close up. Doesn’t project at all into the room. Do you get a different experience?
Only just been planted ! A mere babby!
The ones in the hedgerows here though have a subtle indecence : so perfumed I just have to grab them
I think the key might be in the ‘potted’ part. I always buy those in summer and they always die. Nice and pretty close up, as you say. But I think when they actually take to the soil and can really let rip with the whole body of the plant and the outrageous floralcy, you get the proper gardenia as the god of gardenias intended.
I would gladly share all of it if the stupid f******* Japanese post office hadn’t made such exchanges now 200% impossible!
The parfum is everything, obviously, but it is nice to just splash this on. I had a shower and then wore it like an after shave. Very nice.
Isn’t Japan amazing for vintage perfume? I don’t think most countries are like this. Certainly not the UK.
My brother (who had an incredible green thumb) had a gardenia in a pot which thrived and flowered. The scent would fill the room. It sent me on a search for a realistic gardenia scent which ended with the Isabey Gardenia being the one I loved the most. But it’s cost has kept me from having more than a sample. I do have a bottle of Pierre Guillaume’s Gardenia Grand Soir scent, which was a close second.
I forgot….the gardenia I loved the most was Jovoy’s Gardez Moi! I horde my little dabber sample so seldom look at it.
Ooh I have never tried that one. I see in the base notes it has something called ‘raspberry agreement’.
I don’t have too much luck with Bertrand Duchaufour perfumes but would definitely like to try this nonetheless!
Sorry he is not still around….
That gardenia sounds wonderful, the idea of it filling a whole room like that. When it comes to perfumes, though, I honestly think the best one I have ever smelled is the Hawaiian Forever Florals one – the two you mention I never entirely got with and to me don’t really smell like gardenias.