What it does
Gardenia combines a plant finder, garden-design ideas and planning tools. Its garden examples identify hardiness, exposure, seasons of interest, water needs and the plants used together.
Gardenia makes a planting combination easier to assess before copying its appearance. Garden examples place the plant list beside exposure, hardiness and seasonal-interest details, allowing the reader to compare the example with the intended site. The plant finder offers another route through sun, soil and climate, while planning tools include favourites, compatibility, quantities and a shopping list. Start with the conditions of the actual garden, then use a combination as a candidate design. A visually appealing border and a suitable border are different decisions; the condition labels provide useful evidence for the latter.
Free Starter covers one collection with up to five plants and does not require a credit card. Membership expands this to up to 25 collections and adds full compatibility comparisons, quantity estimates and nursery shopping lists. It renews annually unless auto-renewal is turned off. The pasted plant-list route is marked “coming soon”, so begin with the finder, design ideas or an existing saved collection.
Strengths
- Garden examples include growing-condition details alongside their plant combinations
Watch out for
- Free Starter is limited to one collection with five plants
Best for
- Researching plant combinations for a specific garden site
Sources
- Gardenia: The Ultimate Guide to Plants, Gardening & Landscaping (Oct 26, 2026)
- Garden Design Tool – Plan a Garden Where Plants Work Together (Oct 26, 2026)