Ssshhh! My Gardenia Bush is Blooming

I feel like I should whisper. I don't dare move.

My gardenia bush is blooming.

I have never had a gardenia bush live much less bloom.

Is it because it only cost $4.00?

The last one I bought, in the shape of a perfect topiary, cost $40.00. As soon as I got it home, it went into some sort of toxic traumatized shock and dropped all of its leaves.

Completely.

Then it proceeded to shrivel.