Star Jasmine
Trachelospermum jasminoides
Slow for the first few years, then it covers a wall — and a wall-trained plant sits in a rain shadow, so the watering is on you.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- White
- Sunlight
- Full sun to partial shade, on a sheltered wall.
- Watering
- Regular watering is essential — a wall-trained plant sits in a rain shadow.
- Feeding
- A balanced feed in spring, then a potash-rich one in early summer.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- June
- Pruning
- A light trim after flowering in late summer, and harder pruning in spring if it needs it.
- Overwintering
- Protect it through cold spells, especially in colder gardens.
- Apr–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Jun Spring Growth
- Jun–Aug Flowering
- Aug–Dec Growing
- Jan–Apr Growing
- Plant spacing
- 6 ft 7 in
- In-row spacing
- 6 ft 7 in
- Between rows
- 8 ft 2 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, and deeper than the stem suggests
- Working depth
- 24 in–4 ft
- Can reach
- 6.5 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 6.5–13 ft across, about 1–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A vine puts far more below ground than its one thin stem implies, and that is where the alarming vigour comes from. Give the root run depth and drainage at planting; it will forgive almost anything done to it above ground afterwards.
The habit is Star Jasmine’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Cats and dogs
- Confirmed safe
We say a plant is safe only where a named poison-control reference names that exact species and records it as non-toxic to both cats and dogs. Most plants are on nobody’s list, and their absence here is not a judgement about them. This is a record of what those references say, not veterinary advice, and it cannot account for your own animal, the quantity eaten, or a plant treated with anything.
The ASPCA files our exact species as Confederate Jasmine and prints Star Jasmine among its additional common names; its S listing prints a Star Jasmine row under the same Latin name. The entry records Non-Toxic to Dogs, Non-Toxic to Cats and Non-Toxic to Horses.
- Scale insects Immobile brown or white bumps fixed to stems and leaf undersides, sucking sap and weakening growth. Wipe off with a damp cloth or dab with horticultural soap; watch for the sooty mold that follows.
- Winter cold damage in exposed sites
- Slow growth for the first two or three years
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Scale insects
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Scale insects
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
Green-leaved shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com