Star Jasmine Trachelospermum jasminoides

Star jasmine is an evergreen twiner with dark glossy leaves and a short heavy flush of white pinwheel flowers in late spring and early summer, scented strongly enough to pick up from the far end of a courtyard. One plant will do three separate jobs in a garden, working as a screen on wire, a clipped green panel on a batten frame, or a dense groundcover pinned flat down a batter. Most buyers want it for the fence line, where it covers hard and holds its leaf through winter.

Training the leaders in the first year

It grows from the subtropics to Hobart, taking frost, coastal exposure and heat once established, and only bronzing over the leaf in cold inland winters before greening up in spring. Soil needs to drain, but it is not fussy beyond that. Full sun gives the heaviest flowering and the tightest growth, while shade keeps it green and healthy and thins the flowers noticeably. Space plants along a fence at about one per metre and expect a slow first season while roots establish, then fast cover after that. The mistake that costs people a year is letting the plant climb unsupervised. Star jasmine twines and does not properly self cling, so a young plant left alone sends every shoot vertically, hits the top of the fence and leaves a permanent bare patch across the bottom. Tie the leaders onto the lowest wire and run them sideways instead of upward, filling the base first and working up. Fixing a bare base later means cutting the whole plant down and starting again, which costs another two seasons of cover.

Star jasmine or the flatter asiaticum

The one it gets confused with is Trachelospermum asiaticum, which has smaller darker leaves, sparse cream to yellow flowers and almost no perfume, and which spreads as a mat rather than climbing. Buy asiaticum for groundcover; buy this one for anything vertical, and for the scent. Against Bower of Beauty the trade is flowering season for perfume and toughness. The pandorea flowers in flushes right through the warm months with far showier trumpets, but wants a frost free garden, while star jasmine gives a few weeks of flower, a much stronger scent, denser evergreen cover and enough cold tolerance for Melbourne and the tablelands.

Shearing after the flush, and gloves

Prune straight after flowering finishes in early summer, which is the window that costs the fewest buds next season, since the wood that carries them is laid down over the months that follow. Shear a clipped panel to shape then, and cut a screening plant back to its framework, removing any long whips that have thrown themselves out into open air. On a groundcover planting, shear the surface flat and pin any wandering runners back down. The milky sap irritates some skin, so wear gloves and long sleeves. Feed in early spring with a slow release fertiliser and water deeply through the first two summers. See more screening options in privacy screening.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 8 sizes, from 140mm up to 45L, priced from $16.95 to $269.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to fast growing screening plants.