For many years, in winter the gardenia spent winter in the light set up for the orchids. Then I ''tested'' putting it in the unheated well house, with no light, for the winter. The well house stays 32-40 F all winter. That worked well too. In the long run, I liked the results of wintering it with my intermediate to cool growing orchids slightly better. There it had 18 hours per day of fluorescent light, T-40 shop lights, and temps between 55 to 75 F, usually cooling into low 60's F at night. My ''light garden'' is a basement set up.
Azaleas - I winter my satsuki in the well house, to good effect. The cold dark rest does not seem to harm their spring bloom at all. I winter my ''florists azalea'' the more tropical R simsii hybrids, bred for greenhouse forcing, they get wintered with the orchids, and often end up blooming in February-March and sometimes again later after being put outside for the summer.
So that is what I actually do.
