Star Jasmine

Trachelospermum jasminoides, the twining evergreen that turns a bare fence or wall into a sheet of glossy green and fills the spring air with scent.

Trachelospermum jasminoides · Also known as Chinese Star Jasmine, Confederate Jasmine

Star jasmine is the plant people mean when they picture a wall of small white flowers scenting a courtyard on a warm October evening, and it earns the picture in Brisbane as reliably as any climber we plant. It goes by star jasmine, Chinese star jasmine or confederate jasmine, and despite the name it isn't a true jasmine, though the perfume is every bit as generous.

We reach for it when a garden needs vertical green without the weight of a big shrub, because it will climb a wire panel, blanket a bank or trail over a low wall with equal ease, and it holds its dense glossy foliage right through the year rather than thinning out in the heat.

In a Brisbane garden

In our climate star jasmine flowers most heavily where it gets a good half day of sun, and it will still cover ground and climb happily in the dappled light under an established tree, though the scented flush is lighter there. It is worth being upfront that this is an exotic rather than a native, so where a client specifically wants an all-native scheme we point them elsewhere, but for sheer performance on a hot Brisbane fence line it is hard to fault.

The one habit to plan for is its enthusiasm: given something to grip it climbs steadily, and as a groundcover it layers on itself over a few seasons, so we give it a defined edge and an annual tidy after the spring flush rather than letting it wander into the lawn or up the neighbour's guttering. Established plants shrug off our dry winters and only really want watering through a long summer dry spell.

How we design with it

Star jasmine is our default when a courtyard or side return needs to read as green from top to bottom, so it does a lot of quiet work in small garden design where floor space is precious and the walls have to carry the planting. Run over a slimline steel frame it makes a living screen that softens a boundary far faster and far more prettily than a hard fence alone, which is why it turns up so often in our thinking on screening plants for Brisbane.

As a groundcover it knits into a flat, glossy carpet that suppresses weeds on an awkward bank, and clipped along the top of a wall it gives the crisp, layered green that suits a Hamptons garden beautifully. Because it takes light shade without sulking, it is also one of the more forgiving choices for a front yard that faces east or sits under a street tree.

Where we write about star jasmine

Common questions

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