Pruning jasmine

This is a picture of my Pink Jasmine (Jasminum polyanthum) as it appears today. The tag says it's evergreen, but it doesn't look that way to me! I did NOT prune it last year at all, then in the spring I had new growth intertwined with the dead stuff. What I can't recall is if the new growth was on the old wood or if it was all coming up from the roots. So, should I cut this down to the ground? Leave the vines and just remove all the dead leaves? Leave it alone? Any advice is appreciated!

Jamie

Hi Jamie,
I grow this too and it is evergreen for me in zone 9. It should be for your zone too. Pruning should be done in the summer, and it blooms from Feb-April. I am wondering if this is mismarked and is perhaps not Jasminum polyanthum. It is supposed to be evergreen to the 20's or lower, and we have been so cold this year that we have had many nights in the 20's & no signs of stress on the plant. Mine is covering itself in buds already. So it can really tolerate low temps. Have you had any flowers on yours to verify that it is what it claims to be?
Donna

Hey Donna-

Mine blooms starting in about April and goes until it gets really hot- about mid-July. I don't think they knew the right name for it, but it does bloom like the lable describes. Which is "pinkish white blooms late spring through summer." It did die back like this last year too. Hmmm.... I think I may just run my hands through it and knock off the dead leaves. Then when it gets new leaves in the spring I will see where they came from. If they grow on old wood then I guess I have done no harm.

Yes, I think it is a different jasmine then what they listed, maybe a Jasminum nitidum which has pink/purply buds and does climb, but is semi-deciduous & blooms from April to Sept.
Best of luck,
Donna

Hi Jamie, I would prune your vine down to the ground. The entire top portion doesn't look alive, I'm afraid, but it may come back from the roots in the spring. Unfortunately, it will not flower for you this year. Flower buds develop over the fall when the temps drop about 20 degrees, and it is suppose to bloom in winter. This was mine last March. I used to grow it, but I took it out to make room for some other stuff. Here's a good site: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/botan/feat_plant/jasminum/jas.html Also, I think this vine is only hardy to Zone 9: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1639/index.html I sure hope it recovers for you.

Clare-

That is what mine looks like too when it's in bloom. But it has never bloomed in the winter. It blooms only in spring/early summer, then the blooms stop suddenly when it gets hot. I have never done anything to it and it always blooms for me... I have never cut it back. It did exactly this same thing last winter. Looked just like it does now. I just went in with hand pruners and cut out anything dead but no drastic pruning in the spring when new growth appeared. The base is bigger than it used to be so I am pretty sure it is growing from the roots, but I wasn't sure if that old woody vine material had new leaf growth on it. I just don't remember! Mine must be cross-bred or something! :) I guess I don't see how it could be the same thing when it always dies back in the winter. If the flower buds developed in the fall, then it dies in the winter (as you see in my picture), then how is it that it still blooms for me in the spring? BTW- this is at one end of my L-shaped porch. I have another of the exact same vine on the other end of the porch and it has some dead leaves, but nothing like this one! Leave it to me to have some freak of nature plant. Ha!

Jaime, that is a good question. Perhaps it is Jasminum officinale? J. officinale is suppose to look remarkably like J. polyanthum. I wonder why your one vine on one end is doing better than the other vine on the other end. You can see close up better than I can so perhaps you are right that it will put on some new growth and new buds very soon. A good strong base is a good sign. I'm not sure how it can set buds without the drop in temperature. Some people grow this vine indoors, and it never flowers indoors because it doesn't have the right drop in temps. You'll have to keep us posted on its progress!

A mislabeled plant from Home Depot?! That would NEVER happen! Ha! Mine gets more evenly spaced blooms. It doesn't look like a big bush of flowers when it's in bloom- you can still see the foliage, and then pinkish white blooms all over it. The one on the other side DOES have die back, but if you kind of dig into the middle of it there is some green. Not so in the one pictured. However, the one on the other side also blooms better so maybe that says something. Good news is, while I was inspecting these, I noticed my camellias are ready to bloom! I had ONE lone bloom on one of them last winter and that was it. Now 2 (of my 4) have lots of buds. I can hardly wait! Nothing like those cheery red flowers in the dreary winter. Anyway, maybe I will experiment and cut half of it back to the ground and leave the other half alone. Now that's gonna look attractive, but that's fine. Ok, then I will let it grow back from roots, like it always does, and see where/if it blooms. I will post the results here... think maybe I should have been a scientist instead of an accountant!A mislabeled plant from Home Depot?! That would NEVER happen! Ha! Mine gets more evenly spaced blooms. It doesn't look like a big bush of flowers when it's in bloom- you can still see the foliage, and then pinkish white blooms all over it. The one on the other side DOES have die back, but if you kind of dig into the middle of it there is some green. Not so in the one pictured. However, the one on the other side also blooms better so maybe that says something. Good news is, while I was inspecting these, I noticed my camellias are ready to bloom! I had ONE lone bloom on one of them last winter and that was it. Now 2 (of my 4) have lots of buds. I can hardly wait! Nothing like those cheery red flowers in the dreary winter. Anyway, maybe I will experiment and cut half of it back to the ground and leave the other half alone. Now that's gonna look attractive, but that's fine. Ok, then I will let it grow back from roots, like it always does, and see where/if it blooms. I will post the results here... think maybe I should have been a scientist instead of an accountant!

Good luck, Jamie. I think you had the right idea in the first place by just waiting and seeing before pruning. It can't hurt anything to wait and see what happens in the spring. I bet you are right that new growth will appear from the base, and then when you can see where the new growth is coming from, you can prune the rest. I would hate to see you prune off future blooms just based on what I said! I don't know what I'm talking about right now. You probably do have J. polyanthum if you got it from Home Depot.

This was mine last February before all the blooms opened up:

Wow! That is really pretty! I think I may have the J. polyanthum because mine don't start showing the little buds like that until well in to April. I have a tendancy to under prune. Afterall, you can't "uncut" something!

Jamie

That's true. Yours may bloom a little later than mine did because you are in a different hardiness zone so there's still hope. I don't have this vine any more, but my neighbor liked mine when it grew over the fence so she planted one on her side, and now it's coming over the fence from her side. One of the reasons I took it out is that the dead blooms hung on all summer long and made the vine look really bad, and I had to make room for my row of purple plants! It does have a nice fragrance though when it is in bloom.

Oh mine too! It will have just a handful of blooms but you can smell them from the sidewalk. Amazing! But there are plants with tidier habits that smell good too. I just wanted something to cover that brick and maybe train it to grow over the top part of that wroght iron you can see in the picture. Someone down the street did just that and her vine IS evergreen. In fact, the term "evergreen" on that tag is what caused me to buy it in the first place. Hers blooms, they fade, and then it's just a nice green vine the rest of the year. Of course when I asked her about it she said it was there when she moved in and she has no clue what it is. Hers blooms the same time mine does, yet remains evergreen, so maybe we both have the J. polyanthum and it just blooms later here b/c of our zone, like you said. I just don't know why frost kills mine and not hers. Grrrrr! I don't do fussy, so this may get yanked for a better vine. It gets one more season, that's it! :)

Jaime, that does seem like a nice place for a vine. Do you like wisterias? They are not evergreen, but they are beautiful, and you could train one to grow in a nice pattern to frame the wrought iron area. Here are a couple of my wisterias, trained as standards, but leaning on either side of a wrought iron arbor:

Wow! That looks really nice. I do like wisteria. If this jasmine doesn't shape up, wisteria is a front runner for it's replacement.

There is an evergreen wisteria called Millettia reticulata which is just gorgeous: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/59543/index.html

Hmmm... that shade of purple would look good with the color of the brick on our house too. One review of it says it doesn't climb like regular wisteria. Wonder if you can train it?

I'm sure you could. Here's a good thread with pictures: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/389819/

Oh yeah, those are some good pictures of it. I may have to beg someone to let me SASE for seeds! :)

Texasgarden-
I live 20 north of Dallas. I've tried the pink jasmine, and it has not proven hardy for me. I asked our nursery, and they said depending upon the winter we have, it may come back, OR NOT, usually not...!

Last winter we had such a mild winter, it doesn't surprise me that yours came back. I had a lot of things come back, that don't normally.

I'd check the stems to see if there is any life in them. If there is, you might want to just hit it hard with a hose, to knock off the leaves.

If not, trim it back to healthy stem, which may be to the ground. The verdict is still out on what type of winter we will finish with, but I'd definitely recommend some extra mulch on top of the root ball to help insulate it.

Hope it comes back for you!

-T

forgot to mention that you can have several mini-micro-climates in your garden. The one that is doing better, may receive more warmth from the sun, or reflected heat off a brick wall.

This one may be in a lower spot, or get more chilling wind...

Location can have a big impact on the "zone" your plant experiences...
-T

Thanks T-

They are both up against brick. One is south facing (the "dead" one I put a picture of) and the other is facing west. It doesn't look great, just not as bad as the other one. I agree- the mild winter we had may be why it came back at all. After seeing that wisteria Clare showed, I almost hope it DOESN'T come back. Ha! :)

I can certainly vouch for the evergreen wisteria. I have had one for several years now, and love it! It is fragrant, too! Mine is evergreen 10 out of 12 months...leaves drop Jan-Feb.
I bought it at Home Depot a few years ago, but they told me it was a one time purchase and they wouldn't be getting any more...
BUT! That was before the home depot garden centers came in! I'll bet they might get some...worth a phone call...
(You'd love it!)
-T

It certainly does come highly recommened and appears to do well in our zone. I am about 2 steps away from yanking that jasmine anyway. It isn't doing what I wanted, which was staying green! I would even be okay with dropped leaves a couple of months out of the year, but it just has these dead mushy leaves that stay and stay. Even last spring the new growth was intertwined in the dead stuff and I broke alot of the new growth trying to clean out the dead leaves. Grrrr! I am on the prowl for that wisteria now. :) I think I did see some at Lowes or HD last year, I just don't recall if it was that particular kind.

T, that is great information that you provided about the different microclimates in one's own backyard.

Jaime, Almost Eden carries it, but it looks like they are out of stock at the moment. Here's a link: http://almostedenplants.com/mall/vine_directory.asp I am currently trying to get some seeds to germinate that a friend sent me a few weeks ago. Another gorgeous shrub that could be trained is Petrea volubilis. It looks very similar to wisteria: http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/14176/ Almost Eden carries the Petrea also called Queen's Wreath.

That Petrea is gorgeous, but the "no fragrance" part is what will stop me on that one! I want something that smells good since it is right at the entrance to the house. I did bookmark that "almost eden" site. I laugh every time I open it b/c in that link you gave me someone said they loved it but now they call it "almost bankrupt" since they have spent so much money there. HA! That will be me soon. Anyway, I am looking for another online source. I would love to start seeds, but I have more money than patience, and I don't have much money, so that should tell you what an "instant gratification" kind of girl I am. :) I would like some small pots of it- saw that they were $10 at AE so I will keep that in mind as I shop. Thank you for all the great tips and info guys!

Edited to fix my abbreviation of "Almost Eden"

This message was edited Jan 10, 2005 6:00 PM

Well, I just bid on some of those wisteria seeds on Ebay. No other bids so far, but it still has 3 days to go. I think $2.48 is a little much for 5 seeds, but whatever. I looked online and could only find 1 gallon pots of this stuff for $15. I need two and just don't want to spend $30. I am buying 4 more camellias to plant this spring and those are pricey so I need to watch it! Man, I should start selling seeds and cuttings on Ebay. What a racket! :)

Just a suggestion, but I'd let someone else win on those seeds, as they are very slow growing. By the time those seeds give you a one gallon sized plant, you'll have wished you'd have just spent the $15...

Sorry, but I've started them from seed, and later thought "man, am I glad I just bought a five gallon...it would take these seedlings FOREVER to get that size"

Plus, if you bought one larger, you could attempt to root the cuttings, and STILL have plants faster than from seed...

Seed is much cheaper, but will take a LONG time...especially on this particular vine. They grow slowly, and really slowly, from seed...

-T

Well I hope I lose then! Ha! If I could find the smaller containers that would be great. I'll look around more before I give up hope. :)

Jaime, try emailing AE to see when they will have them again. Maybe your local Home Depot will order one for you if you ask them. I too would recommend buying one plant and trying to root cuttings for a second plant. I'll keep my eyes open for you in case I run across one at a mail order nursery.

Great! Thanks Clare. I will email AE and ask them. And also check with Home Depot.