The jasmine everyone knows by its scent. Clusters of small white flowers open through summer and into early autumn, and on a warm evening near a doorway or seating area the fragrance carries right across a garden.
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Jasminum officinale is a large, vigorous climber that will reach up to 12 metres given room and something to scramble over. It is usually deciduous, with slender green branches and mid-green leaves made up of seven to nine leaflets, so the whole plant has a light, airy look rather than a heavy one.
The flowers are the reason to grow it. Each one is small — around 2cm across, pure white — but they open in terminal clusters of three to ten from summer into early autumn, and the scent is exceptional. Plant it where people pass or sit: an arch, a porch, a doorway or beside a bench. After a good summer the flowers are sometimes followed by blackish-purple fruits.
Give it full sun or partial sun, ideally on a south or west facing aspect where the warmth will draw out the fragrance. It is not fussy about soil type and will take almost anything so long as it drains freely. Provide wires or a trellis to twine through, and thin out congested growth after flowering to keep it manageable — it is vigorous, and left completely alone it will become a tangle.
It also copes well with coastal conditions, and its flowers are a useful late nectar source, which makes it a good choice for a wildlife garden.
Every plant we sell is backed by four decades of growing. Tell us about your garden and we’ll tell you honestly whether this is the right plant for it.
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