Jasminum polyanthum - Pink Jasmine

Jasminum polyanthum is about as fragrant a plant as you will ever find. This is either a beautiful scent or a cloying nightmare depending upon your taste, even if it is on the neighbor's fence 3 doors down it is fragrant enough to catch your attention. The Pink Jasmine blooms heavily in early Spring and then sporadically through the Summer and Fall. The contrast between the mature white flowers and unopened pink flowers is spectacular. Have caution, Jasminum polyanthum can swallow and crush a fence or even pull the boards off the side of a house. If the vine is allowed to lay on the ground Jasminum polyanthemum will root at each node, and there are a lot of nodes. Jasminum polyanthum is not a vine that you plant and walk away from, it must be tamed and regularly reminded of its past training at that. Jasminum polyanthum will persist on a lean irrigation diet, though it certainly likes more. A thick layer of mulch helps with the rooting tendrils. A periodic, every few years, chopping almost to the ground, isn't such a bad idea either. Jasminum polyanthum does not play nice with its neighbors, it will grab them and strangle them. Jasminum polyanthum is normally hardy into the low 20's, but a large mound of it survived through the mid-teens. You might call it self mulching, the outer part protecting the inner.