Plants We Love: Winter Jasmine

During the colder months of the year, a little color can give your landscape a big boost. For this reason, we love Winter Jasmine (Jasminium nudiflorum), which is at its best at this time of year.

Winter Jasmine is a fast-growing shrub, sending out trailing branches that will develop roots when they come in contact with the soil, forming new plants. The plant is relatively pest and disease resistant and will thrive in partial shade to full sun, growing best in zones 6 to 10. Winter Jasmine will root easily and can be planted on banks, trained as a hedge, and is dramatic planted in mass. It will generally get 3 to 4 feet high and 4 to 7 feet wide, but can grow larger if trained on a trellis.

Winter Jasmine peaks in late February and early March, but can bloom anytime throughout the winter in response to warm temperatures. It can easily be confused with Forsythia, but there are a few key differences that make it easy to tell the two apart:

• Forsythia is also an early Spring bloomer but blooms after Winter Jasmine
• Winter Jasmine has five to six wavy petals while a Forsythia bloom will have only four petals
• Forsythia’s stems are usually hollow

Recently, we planted Winter Jasmine at Quarry Lake, a housing development on the site of a former quarry outside of Baltimore, Maryland. Because it is a good plant for bank stabilization, we planted it along the top of a steep ledge, where it will trail over forming a blanket of blooms every winter.

(Source and Image Credit: University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture)