Wizard of Gardenia

"Wizard of Gardenia" is the seventeenth episode of Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. Its international titles include Catalan "El mag de la Gardènia", German "Falscher Zauber" ("False Wizard"), French "Chanceux le petit magicien" ("Chance the Little Wizard"), Italian "Il mago di Gardenia", Portuguese "O feiticeiro de Gardenia", Russian "Волшебник Гардении", Serbo-Croat "Čarobnjak Gardenije", and Spanish "El mago de Gardenia".

In the magical gardens of Gardenia, a gardener gnome named Chance fools the Jewel Riders into thinking that he is one of the great wizards from Avalon's past, and capable of great magic. The gnome has the ability to sculpt magical topiary animals that transform into crystal creatures. When the Jewel Riders discover that Chance is not what he appears to be, they convince the little fellow to help them retrieve a powerful Wizard Jewel from a dangerous place called the Sorcerer's Playground before Kale and Morgana can do it first.

Plot summary[]

On their first mission in the new Jewel Quest to defeat Morgana, the Jewel Riders ride off though the Wild Magic to a wizard's lair somewhere outside Avalon. With the help of Gliders, the girls arrive in a place called Gardenia, populated by strange animals that Tamara cannot communicate with.

After they fight off hostile living shrubberies, the girls meet a gnome gardener that explains he is Chance, an apprentice to the ancient wizard Mallory. Since Mallory has been banished by Merlin very long ago, Chance spent his time tending the gardens in Mallory's lair. He decides to help the Jewel Riders save Archie and find that place of strong magic. But the evil Lady Kale is also around, and her dweasels spot the Jewel Riders and run back to report it.

Lady Kale is busy ransacking through a tree castle that used to be Mallory's lair, trying to find a Wizard Jewel that Morgana believes is there. When the dweasels arrive with the news the Jewel Riders have arrived in Gardenia, Kale sends them back to follow the girls to where the jewel is really hidden.

The Jewel Riders head out with Cance. They fight off Mallory's crystal animal guardians—a dinosaur in a quicksand trap and a herd of giant bats in a forest—but Archie unfortunately gets turned into crystal and is kidnapped by the dweasels. They then run off back to Kale with crystallized Archie, thinking he is a magic jewel of some sort.

The Jewel Riders discover the place of strong magic: the Wizard's Playground, which is hidden behind a magical force field barrier. But Fallon and her friends dispel the barrier and discover a living maze with moving hedges that can turn creatures into shrubberies. After navigating it with the help of the Moon Stone, the girls finally locate the Gardenia's Jewel, the Garden Stone.

Kale arrives there too after forcing her way through the maze with her Dark Stone, and she uses Archie as a hostage to get the hidden Garden Stone. During the confrontation, Chance finds out he has his own magical powers that he uses to make a crystal shrubbery animal of his own. He creates a giant magic dragon that blows away Kale and her dragon Grimm, and the Jewel Riders obtain their first Wizard Jewel. Chance then restores Archie to normal, promises to make Merlin proud someday, and flies off on his new dragon friend.

Behind the scenes[]

Original script[]

Main article: Wizard of Gardenia (script)

Gardenia was based on the gardens of the palace at Versailles and the Japanese-style gardens. Other inspirations included the film Jurassic Park. In the script, the Jewel Riders were originally going to be attacked by "sound clouds" that emitted ball lightning as they crossed the desert.