You have decided to invest your time in adding the August Beauty Gardenia or Cape Jasmine to your houseplant collection. But for some reason, there is not much information available online for the Cape Jasmine plant care. Worry not as we have taken it upon ourselves to do all the research for you. In this article, we’ll help you make your Gardenia flourish indoors. So, stay a while longer and keep reading.
I. Appearance and Characteristics
August Beauty is a selected cultivar of Gardenia jasminoides growing between 4′ and 6′ feet high with a bushy growth habit, which gives it a spread of 3′ to 4′ feet.
This plant is a midsized evergreen shrub featuring rounded, lustrous, evergreen glossy leaves, which makes an attractive addition to your garden year-round.
August Beauty Gardenia is a prolifically blooming variety that produces very sweetly fragrant flowers, velvety white, large flowers from early spring and into the fall. The double flowers are extremely fragrant with a spread of about 3″ inches.
This plant blooms heavily for the three months of its mid-spring through summer growing season. The long-lasting huge flowers are a good choice for use in arrangements.
The flowers are very attractive to birds, bees, and other pollinators.
II. How to Grow and Care
Sunlight
For indoor August Beauty Gardenia, it helps to provide them with bright light. Yet, do not place your August Beauty in direct sunlight during summer. A window that gets morning sun and afternoon shade are ideal.
Outdoors your Beauty Gardenia thrives in at least four hours of sun daily. The reason is that most of the blooming cycle needs light to produce that intoxicating fragrance. Hence, some sun with afternoon shade is ideal.
Still, if grown in a very shady spot, the shade equals fewer flowers. But in some climates, the extreme heat can burn the foliage.
Temperature and Humidity
We recommend temperatures above 60° Fahrenheit for your Gardenia but also keep them away from cold drafts. When it comes to humidity levels, your August Beauty Gardenia prefers levels of 60% and above. For indoor-grown evergreen shrubs, you may need to provide them with a humidifier or group them with other humidity-loving plants.
Watering
Your Cape Jasmine prefers not to get too dry, and it helps to keep them in moist soil but not to the point that it gets soggy. We recommend not letting your Gardenia jasminoides stand in water for too long.
If your planting site has drip irrigation, it also helps to keep the water off the leaves. But, again, the reason is that water can cause fungal leaf spots.
In winter, you can reduce your watering keeping the soil moist, and it works well with your potted Gardenia.
Soil
While different gardeners feel it is a fussy plant, others regard it as a low-maintenance shrub that thrives in soil with a lower pH. This evergreen shrub is an acid-loving plant, and using a traditional potting mix with peat can meet the plant’s soil needs.
When planting your Gardenia outdoors, it helps to amend the soil with a teaspoon of agricultural sulfur mixed into the hole. Make sure the soil is well-draining to prevent wet feet that lead to root rot.
Fertilizing
Your August Beauty Gardenia is acid-loving, so you can feed your plants in mid-March and again in late June with an acid-rich fertilizer. Depending on the type you use, we recommend following the instructions provided.
We also recommend using the feed under the recommended dosage to prevent over-fertilizing. Then, as fall arrives, you can stop feeding your plant as it will go into dormancy. For container plants, it helps to provide them every three weeks.
Or, if you prefer organically rich feeds, you can use bone meal or fish emulsion for best results.
Planting Instructions
The Gardenia jasminoides ‘August Beauty’ is one beautiful plant, and to keep it that way it helps to prune them. Then, once they stop blooming, you can remove the spent blooms and the straggly branches.
The fantastic news is that you do not need to prune your August Beauty every season. The plant does well with cutbacks every other year. You can cut back both the green and brown wood on your plant.
As your August Beauty is a tropical plant, it cannot tolerate winter frost. It helps to provide your plant with mulch similar to your evergreen trees when grown outdoors. Or, if it is a potted Gardenia, you can bring it inside.
Propagation
The best way to propagate a Gardenia jasminoides ‘August Beauty’ is through stem cuttings. You can do this in early spring.
- Gather your rooting hormone, garden shears, stakes, potting soil with perlite, plastic bags, and three-inch pots.
- Next, snip up to five-inch cuttings from the stem tip with greenwood below the leaf node. Now remove the lower leaves and only leave the top ones in place.
- Prepare your containers with the potting soil and poke a hole in the center.
- Dip the cut end of your cutting into rooting hormone and plant it in the hole.
- Place plastic bags around the container and prop them up using stakes to create humidity to develop a root system.
- Keep the soil moist and place your pots in bright indirect sunlight in a warm spot.
- Once your plants develop a root system and the temperature permits, you can plant them in the garden or keep them indoors.
Pruning and Overwintering
The Gardenia jasminoides ‘August Beauty’ is one beautiful plant, and to keep it that way it helps to prune them. Then, once they stop blooming, you can remove the spent blooms and the straggly branches.
The fantastic news is that you do not need to prune your August Beauty every season. The plant does well with cutbacks every other year. You can cut back both the green and brown wood on your plant.
As your August Beauty is a tropical plant, it cannot tolerate winter frost. It helps to provide your plant with mulch similar to your evergreen trees when grown outdoors. Or, if it is a potted Gardenia, you can bring it inside.
Pests and Diseases
Whether you grow the Cape Jasmine as privacy trees in the garden or inside the home, it can become the home to disease and pests. Common insects are aphids, scale, mealybugs, whiteflies, and spider mites.
To control them, you can use horticultural oils and soaps like neem oil. Another concerns are powdery mildew, leaf spots, sooty mold, dieback, and anthracnose. You can treat these problems with fungicides.
Always isolate your infected plant from your other plants as a safety precaution.
III. Uses and Benefits
In China, the fruit of the gardenia bush has long been used in herbal medicine and to make dye for cloth.
In Victorian times, gardenias were very popular and became a symbol of secret love. During this time, the flowers were very popular as cut flowers and corsages.
Today, August Beauty’s showy, fragrant, long-lasting white flowers and deep green, shiny foliage provides year-round interest in a tropical garden, Zen garden, cottage garden, or other ornamental settings.
This versatile shrub is also a good choice in a wide variety of applications, such as:
- Woodland Gardens
- Specimen Plants
- Cutting Gardens
- Privacy Screens
- Urban Gardens
- Mass Plantings
- Containers
- Topiaries
- Borders
- Espalier
- Hedges
This is a very compact type of Gardenia, which can be extremely attractive when planted in fairly enclosed areas such as a walled garden, patio, or entryway. This type of positioning will allow the flowers to fill the area with a sweet scent.
Another good setting for August Beauty is a transitional area. For example, plant a shrub on either side of a gate or a doorway or surrounding a shade structure or gazebo.
Place August Beauty in a setting where it can be easily seen in the evening. Because of its large, fragrant white blossoms, it makes an excellent addition to a moonlight garden.
Because this is quite a forgiving plant with only moderate water needs and tolerance for partial to full sunlight, it can be quite happy in a wide variety of settings.