Wednesday, 12 November 2025

J is for Jasmine

 The very small Winter Jasmine growing on the trellis behind the three Minarette apple trees is flowering - very early, so the flowers are there at the same time as the leaves.




As far as I can remember this is the first place I've lived that's had a Jasmine in the garden, which is odd really considering how many places I've lived in the last 10 years. There are actually two plants in the garden, both planted against bits of trellis, although they aren't really climbers like honeysuckle and roses - both of which the previous owners planted against the same pieces of trellis...Overcrowded so that I have to keep cutting everything back and I've not mentioned the Virginia Creeper which is a vigorous bully!

Jasminium nudiflorum, the winter jasmine, is a deciduous shrub native to China. In China it has the name Yingchun, which means "the flower that welcomes Spring", but we're still in Autumn so it really is far too early.

Here's the Jasmine Flower Fairy from Cecily Mary Barker and her song.








Back Soon





32 comments:

  1. It's such a beautiful, cheering little flower, isn't it? xx

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    1. Seems to have more flowers this year, even though they are early

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  2. This year we planted our first jasmine in the garden, it's been very slow to get going but I hope next year it will take off. The scent of jasmine on the evening air in summer is unbeatable.
    Penny

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    1. I don't think Winter Jasmine has any scent although it's practically on the ground so I can't get down there to sniff it!

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  3. I do love the flower fairies and their rhymes

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  4. It's a lovely flower isn't it. The only time I've tried to grow it, our oil tank leaked into the soil and killed the poor plants all around it.

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    1. Oh no! that must have been annoying and expensive

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  5. We have some jasmine but not this variety. I didn't even realize a jasmine existed that would bloom in winter! It does seem an odd time of year -- I wonder what usually pollinates them?

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    1. I don't think they need a pollinator - they don't fruit and wouldn't need them to just flower

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  6. It's lovely to have scent in the autumn/winter air.

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  7. The bungalow opposite us has a bank of yellow jasmine under a window. I look forward to the flowers every year.

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    1. They really show up in this grey November but a bit too early

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  8. I never tire of seeing these flower fairy illustrations and the accompanying rhymes. Lovely.
    Alison in Devon x

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    1. I'm glad you enjoy them they are handy for filling a page!

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  9. The illustration looks more like forsythia to me. My mother always included winter jasmine in an arrangement at Christmas. I don't think it has a scent though. Christine in Germany

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    1. Definitely Winter Jasmine - Forsythia is different

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  10. The picture from the book looks a lot like my forsythia that blooms in the Spring.

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  11. Mine's flowering too. A new home gift from Stepmum, so its not even a year old yet. Xx

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    1. It's rather early this year, hope it's not a prediction for a cold winter

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  12. Does the yellow flower have a scent? I vaguely recall a jasmine scent.
    Having a scent in the garden is lovely.

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    1. I think it is a white summer flowering Jasmine that is scented

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  13. What a lovely and cheerful flower. Virginia Creeper is a bully and we are still pulling it out of the garden.

    God bless.

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    1. I need to cut my Virginia Creeper back further in the winter when it is leafless but I forget

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  14. I've seen lots of autumn cyclamen around...

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    1. I love cyclamen but never have luck keeping them going

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  15. Such a pity about work out group. Such a false economy to not fund such things. Well done to al in keeping it going. June

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  16. My first experience with jasmine was when I lived in Virginia. Those flowers were white and fragrant and they covered a fence hundreds of feet long behind our condominium complex. I loved them. I have never heard of winter jasmine.

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