HOW TO GROW WINTER JASMINE

A vigorous climber, jasmine is a valuable addition to any garden, and evergreen varieties can be used to soften boundary walls or fences year round. Once you know how to grow jasmine successfully, you will find it is an adaptable, tolerant climbing plant that will reward your efforts with a show of delicate flowers that goes on for months.

Winter jasmine, Jasminum nudiflorum, is like a ray of sunshine throughout the long winter months, brightening the dark days with its masses of little yellow star-shaped flowers on dark green foliage. You may spot the first flowers as early as November, and they will keep coming right through to March.

Frost hardy and easy to grow, winter jasmine prefers full sun in fertile, well-draining soil, but copes well in part shade.

The best time to plant it is in autumn or winter.

Ideal for growing next to a wall for it to clamber up, dig a hole for the winter jasmine approximately 15cm from the wall, and add in some wellrotted manure or compost. The young plant will need a cane for initial support.

This winter shrub’s stems are stiff and do not twine, so it is best grown with some kind of support – either a trellis or wires. Keep tying in the new growth in order to create a more pleasing look. It can be pruned once the flowers have faded in the spring – and doing so gives the new growth time to mature and flower next year.

Unlike its summer cousin, winter jasmine has barely any fragrance, but bees love it, and it provides an essential source of winter pollen for wildlife during the cold months.