Winter Jasmine

Winter Jasmine

Espaliered Jasminum nudiflorum at
Dumbarton Oaks, January 2011

On my perambulations through Georgetown, in search of winter blossoms, I discovered Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) espaliered against the exterior brick walls at Dumbarton Oaks.  A native of Western China, its long evergreen willowy stems are supported against the wall with nails and wire, ensuring that its small, delicate funnel shaped flowers will be easily observed by passers-by on some warmish winter day, yet to come.

In spite of the recent and prolonged cold, its buds, elongated tubes tipped with red, have appeared in profusion and some have even opened into their sunny yellowness in defiance of winter.  They are just waiting for temperatures of 50 degrees or more to pop into a cascade of small yellow flowers heralding the onset of early spring. 

I have always adored winter jasmine, (winter blooms of any kind are essential to my surviving winter).   When I moved to Connecticut and survived my first endless New England winter, I started planting winter and early spring flowering bulbs, perennials, and shrubs with abandon, and not necessarily with good design in mind, I am sorry to say.  Though winter jasmine is hardy in zones 6-9 it is a sporadic bloomer at best in zone 6, so I decided to give it a try.

Red tipped buds awaiting a warm winter day.

The most logical place (and a good design choice, fortunately) for the jasmine in my Connecticut garden was by the back door where it was protected from the cold winter wind, where I would see it every day from my kitchen, and where it could spill over a low fieldstone wall.  It’s a notorious “trash catcher”, so I have never liked to see it planted on flat ground where leaves and other litter is easily caught by the long arching branches and not easily cleaned.  I also think winter jasmine looks awkward espaliered, as it is at Dumbarton.  It’s too contrived.  Hanging over a wall or planted on a slope, however, is ideal.

Over the years, the jasmine thrived and I found its evergreen branches just as lovely in winter as the flowers themselves.  Like Kerria japonica, another green-branched shrub, the branches turn brown as they age but a little judicious pruning annually quickly takes care of this and helps rejuvenate the shrub at the same time.  My wall was too low at 18 inches, and I think it would have looked better at 3 feet or more, but a little pruning took care of this problem, too.  I was delighted to discover that the jasmine seemed quite deer proof. It suckered a little, but that ended up giving me the opportunity to dig up the new plants and share them with friends.  While it didn’t bloom well every winter, when it did, the yellow flowers, preceding both forsythia and kerria, was a source of joy.  It was especially wonderful when it bloomed simultaneously with crocus, scilla, and galanthus. 

Winter Jasmine blossom
braving the cold.

Another planting of winter jasmine near my house, much larger than mine and planted on a slope, did not bloom more than once or twice in the 17 years I lived in Connecticut, even though it was in a much sunnier location.  My conclusion was that it was much too exposed to the west winter wind and it was also never, in all those years, rejuvenated.  Lesson to those in zone 6:  Plant winter jasmine in protected places for more blossoms and prune regularly!

In my new garden here in Georgetown, a previous owner must have shared my enthusiasm for he or she planted a winter jasmine with the intent of espaliering it up a brick wall.  Unfortunately, the wall faces north and is never in sunlight.  Moreover, it is out of reach of the rudimentary sprinkler system so it’s often very dry.  While winter jasmine is tolerant of poor soils, is moderately drought tolerant, and can take some shade, this is little guy is struggling.  There’s not a bud to be seen on this poor thing.

I will have to decide whether it has a place in the new garden, both in terms of design and conditions, or if it will have to be given away to someone with a more ideal location.  Meanwhile, I will go to Dumbarton if and when the temperatures ever rise to get a mid-winter fix.