Gardenia's are blooming

I looked outside my window this morning and the sight that greeted me really made me happy. Every year for the past few years my husband had been putting some fertilizer on the Gardenia bushes in the front of the house. Since he has been doing it they have been blooming. This year is no exception. They are called August Beauty, I guess because they bloom in August, when it is very hot. Well is has been very hot as of late and the plants just started blooming. The reason I planted them at the front of the house is I like the way they look and while in bloom they make the entire house smell so sweet. Also it is easy to root them, and easy to tell of the plants are alive because they are evergreen which means they stay green year round. If they start to die they simply won't be green anymore. I think Gardenia's are one of the prettiest flowers and the fact that they smell so sweet, I just think they are just about the perfect bush. The only problem I've had as far as them being a yard plant is they look leggy and I need to prune back so that they will look more like a bush. My husband said I massacred one last year because I cut it back so much last year. True I did cut it back more than most people would, and it probably won't bloom this year but this year it is starting to look like a bush instead of a few branches sticking out of the ground with a few leaves on it. I only did one, as an experiment if it does fill out I will do another one this year after they have stopped blooming, because you are not suppose to prune or cut back any shrub while it is blooming. You are suppose to wait until it has finished. So if I cut another one back it will be in the next few months.