How to grow potted jasmine and points to note

  "What a beautiful jasmine flower, fragrant and lovely, branches full of blooms, so fragrant and white, everyone praises it." This song praising the jasmine flower is a Korean folk song that became popular all across the country, inspiring awe in many friends for the light and elegant jasmine. Jasmine is a common fragrant potted flowering plant, often grown in living rooms and courtyards.

  Jasmine is a widely used and much-loved flower; ordinary residents like to grow it as a potted plant. Its fragrance is rich, its flowering period lasts as long as 6 months, and its flowers can also be used to extract essential oil, making it one of the important raw materials for extracting fragrances and scenting flower tea. Below is an introduction to how to grow potted jasmine and the points to note.

  1. Preparing the soil

  For potted jasmine, the growing medium should be rich in organic matter and have good water permeability and aeration. Generally you can use 4 parts garden soil, 4 parts compost, and 2 parts river sand or rice-husk ash, plus an appropriate amount of fully decomposed dried cake meal, chicken and duck manure, etc. Sift out the powder and coarse particles, using the coarse particles to line the bottom and cover the surface.

  2. Propagation by cuttings

  Jasmine is easy to propagate, and cuttings root very readily. For the cutting medium you can use the easiest material to obtain —— clean sand. Take advantage of the rainy season (the plum rain season in June and July in the Jianghuai and Jiangnan regions) with its hot, humid weather: cut semi-tender (semi-lignified) branches with two leaves and insert them into the sand; the sand should be 8 cm to 12 cm deep, the branch length 10 cm, and inserting 3 cm to 4 cm is appropriate. Water thoroughly; if conditions permit, connect a water line and nozzle and place in the sun to mist (the full-sunlight misting method); if not, simply use a small spray bottle to mist the leaves often. In about 20 days or so they will take root and survive.

  3. Potting correctly

  After rooting, pot them promptly so they can obtain nutrients early, promoting growth and improving resistance. The potting soil is one of the keys to growing them well; it should be loose, fertile and slightly acidic. It is not easy for residents to obtain soil, so to grow jasmine well you can use leaf mold, pine-needle soil or moss soil that has accumulated for years at the foot of hills, on mounds or on green islands. Clay pots or purple-clay pots are best; although plastic pots look nice, they are unsuitable because of poor water and air permeability. No matter what container you use, make sure there are holes at the bottom for drainage and aeration, but it must not let soil leak out; generally line it with broken tile pieces, palm fiber, gauze, etc.

  4. Watering appropriately

  After planting, water thoroughly right away to settle the roots. Once the plants have established and are sending out new shoots, pay attention to watering at the right time: do not water if the potting soil is not dry, and when watering do not let water accumulate in the pot. During the flowering season, too much water will cause root rot and yellow leaves; drought will cause the leaves to wilt and the flowers to shrivel, so special attention must be paid to drainage and irrigation.

  5. Fertilizing appropriately

  Jasmine likes fertilizer, but fertilizing should follow its growth pattern. Generally water in the morning, fertilize in the evening, and water again the next day; before fertilizing, use a small trowel to loosen the potting soil slightly, then fertilize. Do not fertilize when the potting soil is too dry or too wet; fertilizing when it is almost but not quite dry gives the best results.

  6. Pruning at the right time

  Jasmine blooms most profusely on 3-6 year old plants, after which it ages year by year and must be hard-pruned in time for renewal. Before it sprouts in spring, the previous year's branches can be appropriately shortened, keeping 10~15 cm at the base, so that many sturdy new branches grow. If the new branches grow very vigorously, pinch them back when they reach 10 cm to encourage a second flush of shoots, which results in more flowers and a compact shape with high ornamental value. Note: pruning should be done on sunny days; it can be combined with thinning leaves and removing diseased branches, and the plant can be adjusted, which benefits growth and flower-bud formation and blooming.

  7. Repotting tips

  Potted jasmine should generally be repotted and have its soil changed once a year. When repotting, remove some of the old soil and dead roots around the jasmine's root system, replace with new growing medium, and improve the soil's aggregate structure and nutrients again, which benefits the jasmine's growth. After repotting, water thoroughly just as when first potting, so the roots and soil connect closely and growth resumes.

  Points to note:

  1. Jasmine is not drought-tolerant, but it also hates waterlogging. In the rainy season, promptly pour out any accumulated water in the pot, otherwise the leaves easily turn yellow. On hot sunny summer days, water twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. If you find the leaves curling and drooping, spray water on the leaves to promote growth.

  2. For pruning jasmine, besides cutting away the thin, weak branches after winter in spring and leaving only the sturdy base to await new buds, summer pruning is very important. After the flowers fade, promptly leave 3-5 nodes on the branch and cut off the top shoot, to encourage new shoots and ensure abundant flowering.

  3. In summer, during the growing season, jasmine often produces luxuriant foliage but no flowers; the main cause is applying too much nitrogen fertilizer, causing excessive vegetative growth. In this case, control fertilizer and water, apply more phosphorus and potassium fertilizer to encourage flower-bud formation, and at the same time move the jasmine to a place with plenty of sunlight and good ventilation.

  4. Jasmine fears the cold. In the south, potted jasmine can be grown outdoors through the winter; in the north, keep it warm in autumn and winter and move it indoors to a south-facing spot. With strong light the branches and stems are sturdy, the leaves dark green, and the flowers numerous and fragrant; with insufficient sunlight the nodes are sparse and the flowers few and not fragrant.