Carolina Jasmine trouble

I'm having some trouble with my Carolina Jasmine. It's new this year and was only about a foot high when planted on an old birdhouse pole. It's now probably 12 feet tall and is beautiful (no blooms but we planted it after bloom season). It gets watered everyday along with the rest of the bed. We've had virtually no rain and near 100 degree weather so I've been hand watering everything. Two days ago it started looking very wilted and droopy which shocked me because I feel like it's getting enough water. I doused it really well yesterday and even misted the green but it still looks pretty droopy today. I'm going to mulch the area where it is to see if that helps but I'm really stumped. My fear is something is eating it from the bottom. Any ideas?

My first guess would be a watering issue rather than something eating it, although those symptoms could also be caused by a gopher or something chewing on the roots. I suspect watering though because of the heat wave and the fact that you've had to change your watering habits to compensate.

Does it perk up again overnight when it cools off and the sun goes away? During extreme heat some plants aren't able to absorb enough water during the day with the sun beating down on them, so they wilt as a defensive measure, but will perk up again overnight as they take up the water that's still in the soil. Another thing to check...have you been watering it a lot more since the weather got really hot, or have you been watering it about the same as you did before? Before you water it again, I would stick your finger down in the soil a few inches and see if it still feels moist, if it does then don't water. Symptoms of overwatering often look the same as underwatering, and if you've been watering it more because of the hot weather and then more again because it looked droopy then it's definitely a possibility.

Unfortunately we don't cool off at night this time of year. For example, it's nearly 10 pm here and it's still 87 degrees outside. We put the sprinkler on the garden today instead of me hand watering it. Some of my drier plants won't like that much but maybe it will catch up everything else. I'll see how it looks in the morning. If it looks better, then I'm just not hand watering long enough. If it still looks bad then maybe it's too much water. I will definitely plant differently next year. This is my first year gardening so I have butterfly gaura and red hot poker in the same bed as nicotina and salvia and others that need a lot more water. Next year I'll have a dry bed and a wet bed (lol)!!

Carolina Jessamine, Gelsimium sempervirens, is poisonous in all parts so I doubt anything will eat it for very long. I suppose a really stupid gopher might give it a try, but not likely. Probably a water problem.

I used the moisture meter on it today. Some of it is very moist and some of it is very dry. We found a mole tunnel nearby so I'm wondering if it tunneled through creating an air pocket where the plant can't get moisture. My husband aerated the soil with a solid 1" metal pole in several areas around the plant and then I gave it a thorough watering. We came back from church tonight and it looks worse if that's possible. Several of the vine branches are a crispy light brown and snap off. The rest of it looks totally wilted. I would hate to cut it back and start over but I'm wondering if that's what I need to do. It's come so far, I can't imagine starting over. I'm so sad...I've wanted a Carolina Jasmine for the longest time and finally got one...it went from 6 inches to over 6 feet in less than 2 months and now this. I have to stop getting so attached to my plants (sniff, sniff).

Mine blooms in April or earl may so it may just be past time for it to bloom. It took about 3 years for it to really get going now its beautiful.


Lavina

I would let it dry out a bit--I know you found the pockets that were dry, but I think the parts of the soil that were very moist were probably a bigger problem, and then when you watered it thoroughly those would have obviously become worse. The branches that are crispy are not going to come back but if the rest of the plant is just wilting then there's still a chance, but I would not water again until the soil feels drier.

It could be that the plant has some root damage also since you found the mole tunnel so close to it--I don't know if moles chew plant roots, but if it was maybe a gopher tunnel instead I know they do, I had one (or several?) in my old garden, and I could always tell when they'd been around because there would be one plant that would mysteriously wilt, then when I would check it I would realize that it had become detached from its roots. Sometimes the whole plant would be broken off, but other times I would see that the plant was wilting or drooping but it still had some roots, those times I cut the plant back so that the damaged roots weren't having to support so much top growth and they came back just fine (assuming the gopher didn't strike again!). So if you think maybe some of your roots were chewed, I would give the plant a significant haircut and see if that improves things. Comments about the watering still apply though even if this is the problem--if the soil's still moist you shouldn't be watering again.

I also planted Carolina Jessamine this spring; at first it was doing great, then began turning brown from the base and dropping leaves. Finally realized yesterday, after doing some online research, that it had spider mites. This is a woodsy area with lots of genuine spiders (ick!), so I hadn't thought anything of the scattered webs on the Gelsemium. Live and learn. Blasted it and everything nearby with Safer's Soap, and hope I caught it in time. Beautiful vine, and I'd hate to lose it.

Haven't watered in 2 days and it looks as bad/worse than ever. So it's not too much and it doesn't appear to be 'not enough' so I'm willing to look at anything at this point. We noticed last night a sudden influx of spiders on the deck and in the house but we've got whole vine branches that are dead - not just dropping leaves. Yet some look very healthy...I'm really confused and desparate to save this vine.

Greenie, my Gelsemium also has some totally dead branches and some that look perfectly fine. The spider mites' webs look much like ordinary spider webs to a naked/uneducated eye like mine, but have lots of very small dots on them that look like dust or pollen: these are the mites. I found the webs on another vine today that's quite a distance away: arrrgh! Wonder if I can buy Safer's Soap by the wholesale lot...

I'll give it a really good look tomorrow. Thanks for letting me know!

Bumping this back up - we figured it out and it seems soooooo obvious now. I knew it wasn't a watering issue because it had done so well up to that point. We have it climbing METAL POLE...it's blisteringly hot these days so I bet the pole is heating up and burning the plant. So this fall we're going to cut it all the way back and paint the pole white. I feel so bad that I've burned my own plant. Poor guy!

Glad you found the problem, greenie, and that it's fixable!

Amazing you discovered that. I heard on the news that metal pipes on playgrounds reached temperatures of 140 to 180 degrees depending on what color they were painted. I am sure you hit the nail on the head. Great!

Hi, I was reading your thread out of interest, since I have several Jessamines. One of mine did exactly what yours is doing for no apparent reason. Guess where it was growing...yup, on a metal fence in full sun. I had no clue until just now, that this might have been the cause. Luckily you caught yours in time, whereas mine is in Jessamine heaven! Good luck. They are so pretty when they're in bloom. Christina

You might want to try painting the pole now (or at least a section of it) and feel it after the sun's been beating down on it for an afternoon--having it white will definitely keep it cooler than a darker color, but metal is going to heat up regardless of what color it is, so it's very possible that it could still be too hot for your plant even after you paint it. If that's the case, could you try putting a trellis or something in front of the pole and let the vine climb that instead?

I"m going to have to think of something. Even painting a section won't help much if the pole above and below are conducting high heat. The white will heat just as hot unless the entire pole is painted but I would like to know before sacrificing another season. Maybe I could just wrap them up in some old sheets with the chicken wire around it, I don't know. Christina, I'm glad you found your answer! I was going to grow some Rangoon Creeper on some old metal fence next year...I saved myself that heartache now too!

On the same fence I have pink jasmine which is doing just fine, so it must be less fussy. You might give that a try if you like jasmine. It smells really nice and it blooms all summer instead of just in the spring (like the jessamine).

I wonder if they sell something like a plastic or rubbery coating that you could spray/paint onto the pole? That would cut down on the heat much better than a couple coats of paint would. I have no idea if such a thing exists or not though.

I have 2 pink jasmine and I'm having the hardest time with them so it's funny you mentioned that. Though our climate here is much different than yours and that might be why. They have literally limped along all summer, never bloomed (though they were blooming when we bought them) and now we're losing one. I'm hoping if we cut them back pretty far this fall they'll do better next year.

hmmm, that is so weird. Hopefully someone will have advice for those as well, since I'm still a newby myself.

for your pole how about wrapping it with the kind of tape you put on a tennis racket? (I don't know what you call it, but it's kind of rubbery)

When did you plant your jasmines? If you planted them in late spring or summer and then started getting real hot weather shortly afterwards that's probably why they're not flourishing--it's hard on plants if they're newly planted and they have to deal with heat stress at the same time they're trying to get their roots established. If you can baby them through the rest of the summer though they should be much better for you next year (assuming they overwinter in your zone? I don't know how hardy they are or what zone you're in)

We planted them in way early spring..may have been too early. March or Apri maybe. Right after we got them but b4 they were in the ground, we got a huge spring rain. I know they are not supposed to be overwatered. That's when they blooms went away. Then when I planted them, they went into transplant shock so they suffered a bit then too. The soil doesn't drain well and it's on somewhat of an incline so I think that's a contributor as well. So I'm going to try and get them through the summer and then for next year, I'll raise the beds and add some perlite and potting soil with good drainage and hopefully that will help.

Hi Greenie You could look like a redneck and use foam pipe insulation ;))).

Hey Podster, that would go great with my beer can windchimes!! (lol)

No joke? Are they Lone Star?

j/k...I live with my mother-in-law who strictly forbids alcohol in her home...this IS east texas, you know and all of us who consume are dancing with the devil literally with our souls in fear of eternal damnation (g). I'm from Wisconsin and we love to get our drink on, so this is interesting. I think all she needs is a margarita and she'll be good to go! =)