That's a nice plant dpolson37, with blooms even, that's great!! Do you know what variety it is? I actually bought two plants from Home Depot also appx. 6 or 7 weeks ago. They were the standard(tree) grafted Miami Supreme, I live in florida and we have problems with nematodes so they recommend the grafted variety for us. I planted one in the ground and planted one in a clay pot. Also my daughter gave me a potted dwarf "radicans" for Christmas, hopefully I can keep at least one of them alive, LOL... Good luck with your gardenia and update us with pics when it blooms, hopefully I can get mine to bloom?

Dig around the drip line (outermost edge of the leaves) preferably with a garden fork. Be prepared to water it well through the summer and give it some root stimulator. If you plant it in full sun, try to rig up some way to give it some shade in the hottest parts of the afternoon. You can also prune back about 1/3 of the plant to help you move it and to help prevent water loss thru the leaves.

Recently planted gardenias or recently purchased ones for the inside home tend to lose buds because the environmental conditions in the nursery vary greatly from those outside/inside your home. As you will see, they are incredibly picky regarding bud formation. They will bloom in the spring and, depending on your weather, they will bloom again during the Fall. I once had them bloom during the spring, summer and Fall. But I usually only expect spring bloomage. If I get "extras", I consider myself lucky. Proper temperatures are necessary to force gardenia into bloom. No flower buds set at night temperatures above 65 degrees. Night temperature above 65 degrees causes drop of buds already formed. Ideal forcing temperatures are 65 to 70 degrees during the day and 60 to 62 degrees at night. The flowering response requires 14 hour nights. The flower buds can drop due to low humidity or a sudden environmental change. Flower buds fail to form if day temperatures are higher than 70 or night temperatures are less than 60 degrees. High soil pH can also causes lack of flower bud formation (as well as chlorosis. Leaf drop, possibly delayed, can be caused by cold drafts, improper watering, excessive fertilization, or several consecutive dark cloudy days. Fertilize monthly between Spring and Fall (stop around early September?). And yes, you can fertilize when it has flower buds if it is during the time frame above. Luis

I don't think it would be a problem at all if you water copiously for a few weeks. As you may remember, I had to move my "Frostproof" around this time of year in 2011 because of the construction, and it did fine. It's setting several buds now by the way, and I'll try to post photos when it blooms. Also lots of new growth now.