Two legendary perfumes. Only one of them survives being worn at a wedding.
Shot to one scale: bloom beside bloom, from our own library.
The verdicts, line by line
Every line below is a field of the open table, not an opinion.
In the vase
In plain water the gap is not taste, it is arithmetic: roses hold 5 to 10 days while gardenia manages 2. Out of water, for a boutonniere or an arch, the one that survives the afternoon is roses.
In the garden
Both come back, but not everywhere: roses shrug off zone 2 winters while gardenia taps out below zone 7.
The full card
A line is marked only where one flower clearly leads. Equal or too-close values are left plain.
| Field | Roses | Gardenia |
|---|---|---|
| Vase life, days | 5 to 10 | 2 |
| Wholesale, per stem | $0.32 to $2.50 | no price on record |
| Fragrance | Fragrant as a genus tag; intensity varies hugely by cultivar and class | Very fragrant |
| Light | Full sun | Full sun to part shade, best with light shade in hot climates |
| Water | Medium | Medium, kept evenly moist |
| Hardiness zones | 2 to 11 | 7 to 11 |
| Bloom months | 6 months | 4 months |
| Deer (Rutgers) | Occasionally severely damaged (Rutgers C) | not recorded |
| Cats (ASPCA) | Listed non-toxic | Toxic |
| Out of water | Fair | Poor |
We keep one table of 85 flowers, with 25 documented facts each, drawn from university and extension sources. Every ranking is a published formula worth 100 points; tap any score and it unfolds into the lines that made it. A flower that does not fit a job is not scored lower: it is excluded, and the reason is named. Nothing here is sponsored, and no score can be bought. When the table changes, every score and stamp updates itself. The full method ↗
Read the full profile
Everything the table holds on each of them, in plain prose.