Star jasmine is a fast-growing and fragrant evergreen vine that offers great coverage & privacy as a climbing or creeping vine. Even better, it bursts into bloom with incredible-smelling white flowers in the spring! The plant is native to Asia, but is incredibly popular in the Southeastern United States and areas of California. In warm environments like these, star jasmine is also super easy to care for and grow. Just another reason we love it!
Star jasmine can grow as dense ground cover or container plants, but our favorite use is as a climbing vine. This does require a trellis, pergola, stakes, or some other structure for it to grow up. Those are easy to make and we have two tutorials for DIY trellises: a wire trellis on a wall as well as a freestanding privacy trellis. It makes a great living screen!
Asian jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) is a popular landscape plant known for its glossy green foliage and fragrant white flowers. While often grown as a groundcover it can also be trained to climb trellises, fences and arbors. Proper pollination is crucial for encouraging abundant blooms and maximizing the yield of this flowering vine. In this guide, we’ll explore techniques for successfully pollinating your Asian jasmine to boost its productivity.
Why Pollinate Asian Jasmine?
Like most flowering plants, Asian jasmine relies on pollinators or manual pollination methods to produce the viable seeds needed for the plant to form flowers and fruit Without adequate pollination, your jasmine vine may experience
- Reduced flowering and fruit set
- Smaller yields
- Lower quality flowers
By properly pollinating your plants, you ensure effective fertilization so the vine devotes energy into developing an abundance of blooms instead of fruit production. This allows you to enjoy more of the highly fragrant flowers that make this plant so prized.
How is Asian Jasmine Pollinated?
Asian jasmine is self-incompatible, meaning it cannot self-pollinate effectively. For the highest success rate, it requires cross-pollination between different plants.
In nature, Asian jasmine relies primarily on insects for pollination. Bees, wasps, butterflies, and certain flies are attracted to the nectar-rich flowers. As they move between blooms seeking nectar, they transfer pollen from one Asian jasmine plant to another.
When growing Asian jasmine in your yard or garden, you may need to supplement natural pollination through manual techniques if you notice low flowering rates. Relying solely on natural pollinators can be unreliable, especially if you only have one vine.
When to Pollinate Asian Jasmine
For best results, pollinate Asian jasmine during peak bloom, typically in late spring to early summer. This ensures plenty of fresh pollen and receptive flowers for effective pollination.
Ideally, you should pollinate the vines in the morning after the dew has dried but before the heat of midday. This offers the best conditions for pollen viability and stigma receptivity. Avoid pollinating in rainy, windy, or extremely hot weather.
Monitor your plants carefully as they come into bloom and be prepared to pollinate during that critical window when many flowers are open simultaneously.
Effective Hand Pollination Techniques
If natural pollinator activity seems insufficient, consider supplementing with hand pollination. Here are some simple methods to try:
Flower-to-Flower Transfer
This direct method involves transferring pollen from the stamen of one flower directly onto the stigma of another flower.
Use a small artist’s brush, cotton swab, or your finger to gently collect pollen from the stamen of newly opened, male-stage flowers. Then, carefully brush or dab the pollen onto the stigma of female-stage flowers on a different Asian jasmine vine. Repeat across multiple flowers on both vines for the best results.
Collect and Apply Using a Bowl
For this approach, you’ll harvest pollen from the stamens and use it to pollinate flowers immediately or store it for later use.
Position a small bowl or container beneath male-stage flowers and gently shake or vibrate the flowers so the pollen falls into the bowl. You can use an electric toothbrush for more vigorous pollen harvesting.
Once you’ve collected a substantial amount of pollen, use a cotton swab, artist’s brush, or your finger to transfer the pollen to the stigma of female-stage blooms on a separate plant. Apply pollen to flowers across multiple vines to increase genetic diversity.
Store any excess pollen in the refrigerator for up to a week and reapply as needed during the bloom period.
Fan Technique
For vines trained on trellises, arbors, or fences, you can efficiently distribute pollen across an entire area using the fan technique:
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Collect pollen from male-stage flowers into a bowl as described above.
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Fold a small paper plate or stiff piece of cardstock in half to create a ‘fan’.
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Dip one side of the fan into the pollen to coat it.
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Stand in front of your trellis or fence and fan/flick the pollen toward the vines, dispersing it over a wide area. The air movement will carry pollen particles onto the stigmas of female blooms.
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Work your way down the length of the vine, repeating the flicking motion to ensure thorough pollen distribution.
The fan method allows you to quickly pollinate numerous blooms at once versus flower-by-flower pollinating. For large vines, it can be a real time-saver!
Plant Nectarines Nearby
One trick to try is interplanting Asian jasmine vines with nectarine trees. The early bloom time of nectarines overlaps with Asian jasmine’s peak bloom.
The nectarine flowers will attract an abundance of pollinators to your yard. With luck, the increased pollinator activity will provide adequate incidental pollination for your jasmine. It’s an easy way to boost pollinators without extra work on your part.
After Pollination Care Tips
Once your Asian jasmine vines are successfully pollinated, follow these care tips to support optimal fruit and flower production:
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Water plants regularly to keep soil evenly moist. Proper irrigation is crucial following pollination.
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Apply a balanced fertilizer or one higher in phosphorus to promote flowering and fruit development.
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Prune back vegetation if needed to improve air circulation and light penetration. This encourages productive blooms.
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Monitor for pests like mites, aphids, or scale insects and treat promptly to prevent flower and fruit loss.
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Weed carefully around vines to reduce competition for water and nutrients.
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Allow fruit to develop fully on the vine after pollination. Prevent premature harvesting so seeds reach maturity.
Enjoy an Abundance of Fragrant Flowers
As you can see, pollinating your Asian jasmine properly is straightforward and simple. A small investment of time and effort goes a long way towards ensuring a prolific floral display. An added bonus – you’ll enjoy the heavenly, lingering fragrance from the increased flowers even more!
Follow these pollination tips and aftercare guidelines, and your Asian jasmine vines will reward you with a bounty of beautiful blooms year after year. You’ll be able to cut armfuls of the fragrant flowers for indoor arrangements or share the joy with gardening friends and neighbors.
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Star Jasmine Growth: Before & After
Star jasmine can look a little scraggly in the first year or two as it establishes. For example, we recently planted one on a wire trellis in our backyard where a beautiful but finicky bougainvillea died after a cold snap. You can see we’ve stretched and wrapped the vines to encourage it to fill out over time. For now, it still blossoms, but it’s looking a bit sparse.
But be patient, and it will pay off! Just look at the before & afters of the star jasmine we planted behind our pool. We dug it into the narrow section of soil above our retaining wall. Our neighbors’ star jasmine was already spilling over the top of our shared fence, so we wanted to join the jasmine party. You can see more photos of this space in our pool before & after, but below is how it looked about 3 months after we planted it.
Here is what it looks like now, roughly 3 years later. I swear it’s the same space!
We did add some wires across the back of the fence to help the vines climb vertically. Over the first year or two we manually moved and wrapped vines so they went upward, not outward, but it was easy and kind of fun to do. They say in the first year of growth a plant sleeps, the second year it creeps, and the third year it leaps, but jasmine is so fast-growing it was leaping by year two! So you won’t have to wait that long, especially if it’s a sunny area.
We absolutely love this wall of greenery. Most of the year it looks almost like a solid hedge (even in the winter!) and in the spring when it flowers, it smells AMAZING. The sweet scent fills the entire backyard. It doesn’t require much care at this point, which makes it that much better!
Once your star jasmine has established itself, we find that it requires very little regular care. Here are the main things that we do to ours:
- Pruning: You will occasionally need to trim your vines to control the growth, size, and shape of your plant. It’s best to prune after its flowering season and be sure to use clean sharp clippers. You can also prune any dead or diseased vines at any time. The plant excretes a milky white sap that can be sticky and mildly irritating, so protect your skin as needed.
- Fertilizing: We haven’t needed to fertilize any of our jasmine, but some people choose to use a balanced slow-release fertilizer to boost growth. This is best applied before the spring when it flowers.
- Watering: If we are experiencing periods of drought, we water our jasmine along with our other outdoor plants – typically a deep watering once a week if it has been extra dry.
What Is Star Jasmine?
Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) is an evergreen, climbing vine that – surprise! – isn’t technically a jasmine. While they share many similarities, including their heavenly fragrance, other jasmine are members of the Jasminum genus and are related to olives (family: Oleaceae). Star jasmine is part of the Apocynaceae family, commonly called Dogbanes, which includes flowers like oleandar, milkweed, and frangipani.
Science talk aside, star jasmine is a popular outdoor plant in warmer climates (USDA Zones 8-12) because it grows fast, stays green all year round, and produces a blanket of small fragrant flowers in the early spring to early summer, depending on your location. These flowers are typically white or cream and their star shape is how this plant got its name. It was formerly called confederate jasmine or southern jasmine due to its popularity in the southeastern United States.
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FAQ
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