Pruning Gardenias - Question

Sorry for yet another Gardenia topic. I have five. They've been in the ground about 4 maybe 5 years now, and 4 are well established and growing great.

Zone 8.


I've read a bunch online and it seems all over the place on a best practice on pruning, a whole lot of if's and's or but's.

Last year, they bloomed great, magnificent, started in April and never really stopped until December. I didn't do shite to them. Didn't water, didn't fertilize, didn't prune, maybe I did a little deadheading. My wife at some point pruned them last year, but I don't recall when.

This year, April came and they started blooming like crazy again, wonderful! I did a good job of deadheading one day, and they stopped blooming. The whole summer, very few blooms. I thought the whole point of deadheading was for more blooms. The opposite happened this year.

I still see some buds on them right now, but how do I know if those are buds to bloom in the Fall or if those are buds for next spring?

This is where I get to the crux of my question-

As I understand it, there are really two blooming seasons for them- Spring and Fall. Whatever you prune in Spring is what will grow out and bloom in the Fall, and whatever you prune in Fall will grow out and bloom next Spring.

Am I on the right track here?