Gardenia thunbergia is a beautiful flowering shrub or small tree, with showy, heavily perfumed flowers, glossy dark green foliage and decorative fruits.

It looks good as a specimen plant on a lawn, or as part of an informal hedge or shrubbery, or planted beside a pond or a stream. It also makes a good pot plant in a large container, its pale grey bark and angular shape making it an interesting form plant, while the flowers perfume the air. It is also suitable for bonsai.

Gardenia thunbergia occurs in a strip up the eastern coast of South Africa from near Grahamstown in Eastern Cape to Kosi Bay in the north of KwaZulu-Natal. It occurs primarily in evergreen forest and forest margin, occasionally in woodland and bushveld.

Gardenia thunbergia is easy to grow, although it is slow-growing. It does best in sun or semi-shade, in slightly acid, light, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter added and regular deep watering. Mulch thickly and regularly. Although Gardenia thunbergia is relatively slow growing and generally needs little pruning, it may need to be pruned to keep it shapely, or in scale with its container. Pruning should be done after flowering or just before the new growth appears.

Although it is moderately drought tolerant, drought stress can cause buds to fall before opening. Gardenia thunbergia is half hardy and should tolerate a winter minimum of -1°C (25-30°F) although young plants will require protection from frost. If you notice yellowing of the leaves, this is usually due to a trace element deficiency and can be corrected by feeding with a fertilizer that includes trace elements.

It is easily propagated from seed, cuttings or truncheon cuttings.

The leaves are carried in whorls of 3 or 4 crowded near the ends of the branchlets. They are a smooth, glossy light green, hairless, softly to thinly leathery and conspicuously veined.

Simple with an entire, wavy margin, variable in size, up to 140 x 60 mm but usually smaller, mostly oval, tapering abruptly to a rounded or blunt tip while the base tapers onto the stalk.

The flowers are large, showy, creamy white and heavily perfumed, particularly at night. They open from elegantly furled creamy-green buds. The flowers do not turn yellow as they age on the bush. The corolla is a 70-120 mm tube with 8 large lobes spreading to ± 80 mm in diameter. Flowers are produced abundantly during summer (October to March), peaking in late summer (January to March).