You have Gardenia jasminoides

thanks for the reply. I read it the other day shortly after you posted, but became side-tracted and forgot i even posted. just wanted to reply with thanks.

but yea it's a pretty old plant, and i'm trying to revitalize and take back the property. it actually hadn't been messed with in so long that its' leaves had, sort of, self mounded the base, so when i went to prune it back a bit, i found a bunch of already rooted shootlings of varying years old (though none had more than two leaves). As a test, I fixed up most of them in their own starter pots about a month and a half back (hoping they'd develop a stronger root mass). none have died so far, and most are actively growing with signs of new budding already.

My thing is though, one is rather tall, on the order of 14" and i am afraid to prune its only leaves to be honest. i was figuring i'd leave them as is for this season and next year prune back the tall stem to a few inches. would you suggest that be prudent?