How to Grow and Prune Orange Jessamine

The new shoots of orange jessamine (Aglaia odorata) grow especially fast, so the branches and leaves need frequent pruning to keep the plant looking neat overall. Pruning orange jessamine also takes a bit of skill. So how should you grow and prune orange jessamine?

1. How to Grow Orange Jessamine

1. Soil: Orange jessamine does well in fertile, loose, humus-rich, slightly acidic sandy loam. Use a potting mix made of 50% compost, 25% leaf mold and 25% river sand, and place decomposed cake fertilizer at the bottom of the pot.

2. Fertilizing: Repot and change the soil in spring. Within half a month after potting, water sparingly to encourage new roots. Sunlight should not be too strong at this time. After that, apply a dilute liquid fertilizer once every 7 to 10 days, and frequently spray water on the leaves and the ground to keep the leaves clean and the environment humid.

3. Summer care: In summer, place it in a sunny spot and give it plenty of water and fertilizer, especially extra phosphorus fertilizer, to encourage vigorous growth and more flower buds. If it is too shaded and also gets too much nitrogen fertilizer, it will produce few flowers with faint fragrance, or even no flowers at all. But at midday in the height of summer, shade it to prevent the harsh sun from scorching the leaves.

4. Autumn and winter care: After autumn, stop fertilizing and reduce watering to avoid the potting soil becoming too wet, which causes leaf drop and root rot. Winter management of orange jessamine is very important. Before the severe cold of winter arrives, move it into a greenhouse or a south-facing room, and keep the temperature at 10 to 12 degrees. If it encounters a sustained low temperature below 5 degrees, it is very easily damaged by cold. In winter, place it indoors in front of a sunny glass window, away from wind, but make sure to ventilate it properly, reduce watering and stop fertilizing. On the coldest days, add heat indoors, and it will survive the winter safely.

5. Pest and disease control: The main pests are aphids and red spider mites, which can be sprayed with 40% dimethoate diluted with 1000~2000 times water.

2. Pruning Orange Jessamine

1. Spring pruning: When moving the plant outdoors in spring, prune it once. Heavy pruning of orange jessamine in spring mainly means cutting back each branch, the purpose being to make the plant produce more side branches and give it a fuller shape.

2. Pruning young seedlings: Orange jessamine should be pruned and shaped starting from the seedling stage, keeping a section of main trunk 15 cm to 20 cm tall. Do not let the main branches grow in a cluster from the soil surface; instead, branch and prune above the 15 cm-tall main trunk. After pruning, the plant will keep sprouting side branches, which can make the crown lush with an even balance of density and openness.

3. Summer and autumn pruning: Pruning in summer and autumn mainly means cutting back leggy branches and removing inner branches, diseased and pest-infested branches, dead branches and weak branches. This helps with ventilation and helps concentrate nutrient supply to the other branches, which benefits flowering in orange jessamine. Of course, when pruning, do it together with shaping so as not to spoil the plant's form.

4. Pruning after flowering: After orange jessamine finishes flowering, pinch out the growing tips and appropriately shorten the branches in the central part. This encourages it to sprout a large number of new branches, which benefits the plant's growth the following year.

Orange jessamine needs careful care to produce its elegant, delightful, dainty flowers. If you neglect pruning and care, orange jessamine will grow in a messy way, and the flowers it produces will not look good either.