Orange jasmine is truly a treasure among bonsai specimens.

Orange jasmine belongs to the Rutaceae family, the same family as citrus, and is also known as Chinese box orange; it is an evergreen shrub. It has the characteristics of being short and vigorous, with fine leaves and strong branches, and gnarled roots. Bonsai enthusiasts imitate painting techniques and, through pruning, shaping and other methods, can transform it into a bonsai art treasure that is either vigorous and majestic or elegant and graceful.

The branch pads of orange jasmine bonsai are mostly shaped using the unique Lingnan school "grow branches and truncate the trunk" method, appearing firm and powerful with well-balanced layers; moreover, each branch pad independently forms a tree, and each branch tree independently forms a scene. If any branch pad is casually cut off, it conforms to the standards of an independent bonsai shape.

Guangdong's orange jasmine bonsai is famous far and wide. In 1962, the beloved Premier Zhou Enlai and Vice Premier Chen Yi passed through Guangzhou on their way abroad for an official visit, and specially selected a fine orange jasmine and a fine Japanese apricot (Prunus mume) by Kong Taichu as gifts to His Majesty King Selassie of Ethiopia.

Orange jasmine is extremely abundant in its place of origin, India, and can also be seen from time to time in the sparse forests of the mountains and wilds of southern China. In the early Qing Dynasty, the Lingnan poet Qu Dajun wrote the famous line "In every household, the custom is orange jasmine," showing that orange jasmine was already cultivated throughout Guangdong in the Qing Dynasty, and among the common people many families liked to place it in their courtyards, taking it to mean good fortune and longevity.

Orange jasmine likes a warm and humid climate, and in winter it fears cold and drought. In the north it can only be grown in pots and moved indoors in winter, while in the south it can overwinter in the open air. It has strong sprouting ability, grows vigorously, and is extremely tolerant of pruning. Apart from bonsai, which require careful care, ordinary landscaping plantings are easy to manage. Common orange jasmine bonsai mostly have wild-collected trunks, taking their wild charm, and the proportion of branches is not very strict. Over the years it has been developed into a cultivated species, trained from a young age, and shaped by artificial means into superior works.

However, beginners at making bonsai should be careful to avoid choosing the wrong tree species. The "shi li xiang" (Murraya paniculata var.) of the same family looks very much like orange jasmine; the difference is that its leaves are large and pointed, and its leaf texture is thinner. Its bark is brownish-yellow, and it is mostly produced in northern Guangdong, so it is not suitable for making bonsai.

Orange jasmine grows quickly, and its branches are soft and not easily broken when wired. It can be propagated by sowing, cuttings, layering and other methods. With the sowing method, collect ripe red fruits from April to July, take out the seeds, sow them in a seedbed, and they sprout in about a month. Cuttings can be taken from April to May; choose 2-year-old branches, cut them into 15 cm to 20 cm cuttings, remove the leaves from the lower end, leaving only 3 to 4 leaves at the top, wrap the lower end of the cutting with mud, insert it into a seedbed or pot, keep the soil moist, and place it in a shady spot; after about 50 days it can take root and grow leaves.

Layering propagation means pressing a branch of the mother plant that is close to the ground into the soil so that it sprouts new roots, then cutting it off to become a new plant that lives independently.

Orange jasmine layering generally uses the air-layering method, which is more suitable for taller plants whose branches cannot easily be bent to the ground. Before budding, choose a strong branch, make a ring bark cut about 2 cm to 3 cm wide, then knead sandy loam and potting soil into a paste, wrap it around the wounded area, then wrap it with moist green moss, and cover the outside with plastic film, tying both ends tightly with plastic string to help retain moisture. Wait until it grows new roots, then cut it off from the mother plant below the roots and pot it for planting.