Gardenia

"Master of Vivid Plant Pokémon!"
Gardenia
Species	Human
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Brown
Base	Eterna City
Relatives	Colza (possible ancestor)
Voiced by	Erica Mendez (2019)
Debut	Pokémon: Diamond/Pearl Versions

Gardenia is the second of the eight gym leaders of the Sinnoh region to appear as an opponent in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum Versions, as well as the remakes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. She specializes in Grass-type Pokémon.

Background

Gardenia was the gym leader of Eterna City's Pokémon Gym. Her gym was unique in that it was designed to resemble an actual forest, and she required all challengers to defeat the other trainers in her gym before challenging her, with those trainers hiding in various nooks of the open space. Gardenia was also known to make regular excursions into the neighboring Eterna Forest.

Within the fourth generation games, she was challenged and defeated by Barry and then Lucas/Dawn. She claimed to have known that Lucas/Dawn would make it past her trainers, due to sensing a winning aura around this trainer. After being defeated, she confirmed the toughness of Lucas/Dawn's Pokémon and said that it was a measure of how much they loved their Pokémon. She gave the trainer both the Forest Badge and TM 86: Grass Knot, assuring the trainer that they would only get tougher.

She could later be seen outside the Old Chateau within Eterna Forest. She claimed that she was there to investigate the rumors of its haunting, but when Lucas/Dawn arrived, she pushed the task on them, due to her fear of the ghosts within. She attempted to cover up her fear by claiming that she was actually too busy with her gym leader activities and quickly returned to her gym. In Platinum, Gardenia could also be rechallenged along with all the other gym leaders at the Battleground, and she would also visit the player's villa on random days (or after a Houseplant was purchased). In Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, she could instead be challenged to rematches at the gym in the postgame, and she could also appear as an opponent in both single and double battles at the Battle Tower. For double battles, she teamed up with Fantina.

Gardenia reappeared in Black and White 2 as a competitor in the Pokémon World Tournament held at Unova. She participated in the Sinnoh Leaders, World Leaders and Type Expert Tournaments.

Pokémon Roster

Gardenia uses the following Pokémon in the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl gym battle:

• Cherubi/Cherrim: During the first battle, she uses Cherrim in Platinum only and Cherubi in all other versions
• Turtwig
• Roserade

She uses the following Pokémon for the Battleground rematch in Platinum:

• Jumpluff
• Cherrim
• Bellossom
• Torterra
• Roserade

For rematches in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, her roster was similar to her Battleground line-up, except that Bellossom was replaced with Sunflora and Breloom. For matches at the Battle Tower, her Pokémon could include Breloom, Roserade, Cradily, Mow Rotom, Milotic, Ninetales, Venusaur, Shiftry and Tangrowth.

In Black 2, and White 2, the roster of Pokémon she uses for tournament fights could include Roserade, Tangrowth, Leafeon and Torterra as well as Carnivine and Cherrim in the Sinnoh Leaders Tournament or Tropius and Breloom in the World Leaders and Type Expert Tournaments.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Gardenia and her Roserade appeared as a playable sync pair that could be recruited at random through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature. She also appeared as an opponent who Ramos had to defeat in a one-on-one battle to evolve his Weepinbell in a Sync Pair Story. She also made an appearance during an extra scene in the "Shining Star" Story Event, where she was pranked by Elesa's Rotom.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• She appeared in several episodes of the Pokémon anime's Diamond & Pearl series. She first accompanied Ash Ketchum for two episodes before revealing her identity as a gym leader, and another episode was devoted to their gym battle which Ash won. In this series, Gardenia's obsession with Grass-type Pokémon resulted in her admiring Team Rocket's Grass-type Pokémon, despite them being on opposing sides. She reappeared in a later episode at Emeragrove Town, where she and James of Team Rocket battled Ash and Dawn in a doubles battle. James ultimately left his Cacnea with her for traning.
• Gardenia also appeared in the Pokémon Adventures manga during the Diamond/Pearl arc. She first tracked down Diamond, Pearl and Platinum in the forest through the smell of gas to question them on their encounter with a gas Pokémon, and after learning about their encounter with that Pokémon, she was impressed enough to demand a gym fight. During the fight, she had her grass Pokémon use long range moves from a distance to prevent Platinum's Pokémon from using their type-effective attacks. Platinum was ultimately able to turn the tables and defeat her by having her Prinplup channel a Blizzard attack through the tunnels in the ground that were created by the vine attacks of Gardenia's grass Pokémon. The gym leaders all appeared again at the end of the arc, when they battled with Team Galactic's commanders at the Spear Pillar.

Trivia

• In addition to sounding like "garden", her name is also a species of plant. Her Japanese name is Natanem, which is taken from the Japanese word for the rapeseed and also resembles the Japanese words for "vegetable" and "seed".
• In Platinum, she admits to her fear of ghosts at the villa and professes that she would be at a loss if she was confronted with a Grass-type ghost Pokémon. Later generations would introduce several Pokémon with that typing, such as Phantump/Trevenant, Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist and Decidueye.
• In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, there is a character named Colza who appears to be related to Gardenia. He has the same hair style and eye color as Gardenia, and he works with various plants as a farmer.