Star Jasmine (or Chinese Jasmine - Trachelospermum jasminoides)

Andrew Staib runs Glorious Gardens, which is a garden design company based in Brighton. Below he talks about Star Jasmine (or Chinese Jasmine - Trachelospermum jasminoides).

If you have a boring wall, especially if the rest of the garden is shedding its leaves and is starting to look impoverished, Star Jasmine is a most beautiful choice. It is evergreen and has a superb structure. It never threatens to take over your garden and in summer has the most intense fragrance and it can be grown in pots so can dominate a courtyard.

It can grow up to 8 meters, does best on a sheltered south facing position but will survive even on a north facing wall, and requires minimal pruning. It has a 'bonsai' like quality to it where you can pay attention to every leaf and twisted tentacle. As this picture shows it can even be grown on an outhouse wooden wall and still let the chocolate brown colours and the secure order of the woodpile to come through.

To contact Andrew, email andrewstaibuk@yahoo.co.uk or visit the Glorious Gardens website. Andrew updates his blog every week with beautiful pictures of nature, you can subscribe to the blog via the website.

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