Jasminum didymum subsp. racemosum
FAMILY: OLEACEAE
This common local plant is one of our four local species of jasmine. A mature plant produces large numbers of tiny, fragrant white flowers in summer, and is a favourite feeding spot for insects including various species of native bee. The dense foliage offers good nesting sites for small birds, which are also attracted by the insect smorgasbord, and the fruits, which ripen to black.
When I planted it twenty years ago, my idea was to cover this trellis with the jasmine to make a
screen.
As you can see, the jasmine had other ideas! Despite failing to gain the neat screen I had planned for, I have since grown to love the plant’s non-conformist shape. Almost completely concealed in the above photo is a native beehive, appreciating the shade in the heat of summer.
In autumn, I give the jasmine a trim to let in the sun. The hive is situated on the eastern side of the trellis with a northern aspect, so it is snugly situated to pick up the winter sunlight until mid-day, while sheltering from our cold August winds.
The triple-leaf-jasmine was slow to grow in its first year or two, and I planted some desert jasmine (Jasminum didymum subsp. lineare) on the same trellis. It is still there, but a little difficult to find among the much greater bulk of its broader-leafed cousin’s canopy.
This jasmine (and probably most of the other jasmine species) is happy to be refreshed by hard pruning. I recently decided it was time to take my plant back to basics, because I was concerned that its weight might be putting too much strain on the twenty-year-old trellis. I trimmed it down to its woody skeleton. What I learned from picking up the clippings was that despite their apparent bulk, the weight was negligible and I need not have worried. What an excellent plant this would be for a rooftop garden or large balcony - the size of a substantial shrub, but without the weight.
I removed every scrap of leaf, and for a few weeks I worried that I had overdone it. What it I had killed my beloved jasmine?!! To my relief it has bounced right back.
As the photo shows, it is still stubbornly determined to make its bulk at the top of the trellis. Meanwhile I have cut off its flowering stems for this summer, so will have to wait another year for flowering. A gentle trim no later than March should help the new growth to thicken up still more, and give the plant time to put on a good insect-feeding display next summer.
