Gardenia

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

Gardenia is the second of the eight gym leaders of the Sinnoh region who had to be battled in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum Versions. 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 is designed to resemble an actual forest, and she required all challengers to defeat the other trainers in her gym, who hide in various nooks of the gym, before challenging her. Gardenia was also known to make regular excursions into the neighboring Eterna Forest.

Within Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, she was challenged and defeated by Lucas/Dawn. She claimed to have known that they 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 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 Lucas/Dawn 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 being afraid 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 is purchased).

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 gym battle:

• Cherubi (Diamond/Pearl only)/Cherrim (Platinum only)
• Turtwig
• Roserade

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

• Jumpluff
• Cherrim
• Bellossom
• Torterra
• Roserade

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, 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 made an appearance during an extra scene in the "Shining Star" Story Event, where she was pranked by Elesa's Rotom. She also appeared as an opponent who Ramos had to defeat to evolve his Weepinbell in a Sync Pair Story.

Other Appearances

• 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 leads her to spent time admiring Team Rocket's grass Pokémon, even when they are on opposing sides. She reappears in a later episode at Emeragrove Town, where she and James of Team Rocket battle Ash and Dawn in a doubles battle, which leads her to train James's Cacnea for him.
• Gardenia also appears in the Pokémon Adventures manga during the Diamond/Pearl arc. She first tracks down Diamond, Pearl and Platinum in the forest after tracking them by the smell of gas to question them on their encounter with a gas Pokémon, and after learning about their encounter with the gas Pokémon is impressed enough to demand a gym fight. During the fight, she has her grass Pokémon use long range moves from a distance so that Platinum's Pokémon could not use their type-effective attacks, but Platinum was able to 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.
• 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.