Star jasmine or false jasmine is a beautiful fragrant climbing vine that blooms all summer.
Key Star jasmine facts
Name: Trachelospermum jasminoides
Family: Apocynceae or dogbane
Type: climbing shrub
Height: 16 feet (5 m)
Exposure: full sun
Soil: well-drained
Foliage: evergreen – Flowering: summer to fall
If you’re looking for advice on winter jasmine, often used for growing indoors, follow this link.
Planting star jasmine
Planting, care or pruning must all follow good practices to increase the blooming.
Star jasmine is planted either in fall or in spring.
- Apart from these two periods, avoid planting when it’s too hot or freezing.
Make the most of its smooth jasmine fragrance, and set it up near a passageway or a window so that you may benefit from it with all your senses, not only the eyes!
- Follow our advice on planting shrubs.
Prepare star jasmine cuttings. It is rather easy, and is most successful when performed in spring.
- Find our guidelines on preparing cuttings
Pruning and caring for star jasmine
Rather straightforward, caring for star jasmine can even be left to minimum care once the plant is correctly settled in.
Caring for star jasmine
Star jasmine is a plant that doesn’t need much care, especially when properly settled in.
Drought within the first two years after planting is the only reason you’ll need to water it.
Add flower plant fertilizer in spring to enhance your star jasmine’s blooming.
Pruning star jasmine
- No pruning is formally required but an annual makeover at the end of winter will enhance blooming.
- If you wish to balance the shape or reduce the size of your plant, do it at the end of winter or at the very beginning of spring.
Star jasmine problems
No blooming on star jasmine
Why isn’t your star jasmine blooming? Perhaps it’s too cold in your area. Star jasmine can only bloom well in places where it doesn’t get too cold. If it isn’t hot enough, you’ll get plenty of leaves but maybe never get flowers.
- Temps must reach 65°F (20°C) and stay there for around a month to trigger flower formation.
- Only in warm areas will your star jasmine bloom in spring. Elsewhere, you’ll have to wait for summer or even early fall.
If after 2 years you haven’t yet had any flowers, this is probably the reason. Best unearth your plant and move it to a greenhouse or a lean-in, in a large pot.
Star jasmine overrun with pests
Your vine might get covered in scale insects or tiny red spiders. In both cases, make sure to treat the plant early so the plant isn’t overrun.
Learn more about star jasmine
Star jasmine, native to Asia and sometimes called Indian jasmine, earned its name from the fragrance that smells a lot like jasmine that emanates from its blooming.
Its inflorescence is very beautiful and its evergreen leafage lasts all year long.
This very beautiful climbing shrub is easy to care for and maintaining it is a breeze.
It is perfectly suited to covering a wall, but also makes for great ground cover or pot arrangement material.
Note that if you grow it in a pot it will stay small.
At the beginning, attach your star jasmine to a lattice because it has trouble starting off, but afterwards it will wind around on its own.
Read also:
Smart tip about star jasmine
If you’re hoping for it to climb, help it out at the beginning because it isn’t quite good at attaching itself at the start.
I have a huge star jasmine creeper which was planted 34 years
some of it has failed
do these creepers have a life span ?
could it be just old and dying ?
some of it however look very healthy
The unhealthy dying part is not planted in the same hole as the healthy bit