Landscape Spotlight: Winter Jasmine, Jasminum Nudiflorum

Winter Jasmine is a deciduous perennial that offers a lively color display of vibrant yellow flowers all winter long.  It embellishes stretches of trellis and fences and adorns walls handsomely.  While this shrub remains very versatile in its use, one attribute it lacks is smell!  Typically, jasmine flowers emit an intoxicating aroma, but the Winter Jasmine is void of this pleasance.  This is not to say that the Winter Jasmine doesn’t have a use in your landscape, because it certainly does!

On average, if this shrub is freestanding, it can grow 3-4′ tall and twice as wide.  Given a trellis and the opportunity, you can watch it grow up to heights of 15′!  This shrub is almost always grown to aesthetically exaggerate a perimeter or supporting structure, but believe it or not, it is not actually a climbing plant.  Winter Jasmine is void of its own natural adhesive needed for climbing and sticking, it does not twine nor have thorns or tendrils to help it claw its way to the top.  If you are looking to have this plant take a vertical form, you must train it to do so.

With that being said, even though Winter Jasmine is labeled a shrub, it is more of a creeping vine or a “scrambler”.  This is when you should assess the amount of maintenance and energy you would like to put into your landscape.  If not pruned and left to its own devices, this plant will multiply.  Its arching green stems cascade to the ground gracefully and wherever the stems touch the ground, they will take root!  If you do not want the pruning responsibility, it is best to plant this shrub on a sloped bank or anywhere you would like a hardy ground cover.

When spring does arrive and the cheerful blooms fall away, it is time for pruning.  By cutting back the stems by about 2/3 in the spring, you will avoid any bare stems the following winter.  To keep this shrub smaller and manageable, you can hard-cut the more mature brown branches because the flowers develop on the previous year’s growth.

Whichever use you have for this plant, you can count on its vivid cheerfulness year after year, snowfall after snowfall.  This plant can withstand the coldest conditions and still pull through with its blooming schedule at the first sign of tepid winter weather.  As a cold-weather beauty, you can see these flowers starting as early as November and continuing through March!  It’s 1″ bright yellow flowers bloom ahead of its leaves on season-long green branches, making it especially dramatic in your landscape against the fresh fallen snow.

Would you like more planting suggestions and education, as well as guidance with your outdoor living space?  MasterPLAN Landscape Design is here to lend our expertise with our complete design vision and project management skills to properly plan and construct your dream backyard!  We are truly committed to creating a low-maintenance outdoor living space that gives you an enjoyable place to rest, relax and spend quality time with your friends and family  If you are looking for a design/build firm that is professional, passionate and caring, reach out to us to become a part of the MasterPLAN family!