Other Names:  Pinwheel Flower, East India Rosebay, Nero's Crown

Description:

This shrub or small tree is very attractive, and features stunning, glossy deep green leaves, and contrasting dainty white flowers year-round but primarily in spring, ; fruit appears in pairs and ripens bright red; can be grown indoors in colder climates

Ornamental Features

Crepe Jasmine features dainty clusters of fragrant white star-shaped flowers with buttery yellow centers at the ends of the branches from early to late spring. It has attractive dark green foliage with light green veins. The glossy oval leaves are highly ornamental and remain dark green throughout the winter. It produces orange capsules from mid summer to late fall, which fade to red over time. The rough gray bark is extremely showy and adds significant winter interest.

Landscape Attributes

Crepe Jasmine is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its relatively coarse texture can be used to stand it apart from other landscape plants with finer foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Crepe Jasmine is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• Hedges/Screening
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Crepe Jasmine will grow to be about 10 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 10 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 60 years or more.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. This plant should be periodically fertilized throughout the active growing season with a specially-formulated acidic fertilizer. It is very fussy about its soil conditions and must have rich, acidic soils to ensure success, and is subject to chlorosis (yellowing) of the foliage in alkaline soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This species is not originally from North America, and parts of it are known to be toxic to humans and animals, so care should be exercised in planting it around children and pets.

Crepe Jasmine makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Its large size and upright habit of growth lend it for use as a solitary accent, or in a composition surrounded by smaller plants around the base and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.