Chinese jasmine care

It is usually called Chinese jasmine, winter jasmine or climbing jasminealthough its scientific name is Jasminum polyanthum. It is a climbing plant native to China and Burma, as its common name indicates, and is evergreen. When grown as a climbing plant, it can reach heights of up to 6 meters if you have the right support, which is why it is widely used for pergolas and walls.

This type of jasmine gives rise to a large number of pink buds, which later form white flowers with five star-shaped petals. Its flowering is early, between the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and it is not an invasive root species, so it can be grown together with other plants without any problem.

Winter jasmine can be grown both in the ground and in a pot, although, as with most climbers, it is usual to find a outdoor location. The plant develops well in areas of direct sunlight or partial shade, but it will not grow properly in an area where the sun never reaches or it does very little. Regarding the climate, it is a plant that can resist occasional light frosts, for which it is recognized as having a certain resistance to cold, but it does not tolerate really low temperatures for long periods.

If you want to know how to guide a chinese jasmine, follows most of the rules of any other climber, and will have no trouble climbing any suitable surface that has some support. However, if you see that it is difficult for it, provide guides or sticks next to its stems so that it can support itself and grow.

The soil is not one of the most important cares for this plant, and the only really important thing with it is that it has a good drainage. Winter jasmine does not tolerate excess moisture in its roots, so a clay soil or one that tends to become waterlogged will end up killing the plant or not allowing it to develop well.

Find an area where you can put your jasmine plant in the garden that does not retain irrigation or rainwater and, if you are clear about the location where you want to plant it, you can prepare a good hole for it with a suitable soil mix. Coconut fiber mixed in equal parts with peat results in a very light substrate with great drainage, which is very suitable. If you also enrich it with earthworm humus or some other organic fertilizer, your plant will develop better initially.

This is the key point in winter jasmine care. Its roots will rot if you water too often, so you need to wait until the soil or substrate has dried beyond the topsoil before watering again. This tends to happen every other day in the warm months and up to once a week in the cold months. Logically, these are guide times of the chinese jasmine watering, and depend on the climate and soil of each area. In fact, outdoors and with rain, it is better not to water during the cold months.

If you have your Chinese jasmine in a pot, do not put a saucer on the plant under it or, if you do, empty it about ten minutes after watering.

Chinese jasmine does not need intense pruning and, unless you want to keep it reduced to certain dimensions, you only need to do regular maintenance to remove dry or damaged parts, as well as branches that grow in a way that hinders others. You can prune it at any time except in the flowering season. Here we tell you more about when and how to prune jasmine.

Chinese jasmine reproduces very easily both by suckers and by cuttings.

• the suckers they are taken from the mother plant in spring, and can be transplanted to the new location.
• cuttings They must be done at the end of summer, and it is advisable to choose half-lignified branches, where the wood is not yet completely hard.

If you have cultivated potted chinese jasmine and you think the time has come to take it outside, the best time to transplant in the springespecially considering that the risk of frost in your area no longer exists.

If you want to continue keeping it in a pot but your plant needs a larger container, it is recommended to transplant it also during the spring, although if it is going to be indoors you have a longer period of work. Here we tell you How to plant a jasmine so that you can better see the steps to follow during a change of pot or soil.

Chinese jasmine is not particularly sensitive to any special pests, being occasionally attacked by the most common ones, such as cochineal or aphid. In any of these cases, pay attention to the leaves and their undersides, and treat them as soon as possible with ecological remedies, such as Neem oil or potassium soap, which will not harm the plant and will kill the pest.

We advise you to read these guides on How to eliminate the cottony mealybug and Home remedies against aphids.

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