Asian Star Jasmine Trachelospermum asiaticum

Asian star jasmine spreads as a low dense mat rather than reaching upward like a true vine, throwing out wiry runners that root where they touch down and knit into an even carpet. The leaf is the quickest way to tell it apart, being small, dark, leathery and closely spaced along the stem, and the flowers are few, small and cream to buttery yellow. It is bought mostly as groundcover, for the dry root filled ground under established trees and for embankments where mowing is awkward, and it will also sheet a low fence panel or a wall flat once it reaches one.

Closing the gaps in an Asian star jasmine planting

It grows across temperate and subtropical Australia, coastal and inland, and takes frost once the roots are down, though foliage often bronzes over a cold winter and greens again in spring. Soil can be ordinary. It will hold in clay, in builders fill and in the root mat under a gum, provided water moves through rather than sitting. Position it anywhere from part shade to full sun. Under trees it stays greener and flatter, in open sun it runs harder and colours more. For groundcover plant three to five to the square metre and stagger the rows so the runners meet across the gaps rather than lining up. Salt wind on a coastal block does not trouble it, and it is one of the few evergreen covers that will hold a steep batter without permanent irrigation. The failure here is walking away after planting. Cover takes a full growing season, and in that season every weed seed in the bed germinates in the open ground between plants. Mulch, hand weed and keep the water up until the mat closes over. Once it has closed, very little gets through it.

Asiaticum, jasminoides or native violet

If you want perfume, buy Trachelospermum jasminoides instead. Its flowers are larger, white, far more numerous and carry a scent across a courtyard, and it climbs properly on wire. Asiaticum is the flatter, tighter, less showy one, and that is exactly why it works underfoot, along edges, and pressed flat against a low fence or retaining wall. It will still climb, just slowly and without ever attaching itself, so on a paling fence or a wire panel it takes longer to cover than jasminoides and finishes tighter and denser against the surface, which is what you want where a loose twining screen would look untidy. In genuinely shaded damp ground, native violet covers faster and looks softer, but it will not take the dry root competition or the open sun that asiaticum shrugs off. Choose asiaticum for hard, dry, half sunny ground you have stopped wanting to mow.

Shearing the mat and feeding it

Shear the whole planting over in late spring once flowering finishes, taking the tips back to keep the surface even and to stop runners climbing anything nearby. A second light trim in autumn tidies edges along paths and driveways. Where the mat has lifted and gone spongy after a few years, cut it harder and it regrows flat from the base. The sap is milky and irritates some skin, so wear gloves and long sleeves when you cut it. Feed with a slow release fertiliser in early spring as growth starts, and again after the summer shear on a young planting still filling in. Established mats rarely need more than that. Browse the rest of the range in climbers.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 4 sizes, from 125mm up to 200mm, priced from $16.95 to $29.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to fast growing screening plants.