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Sunday, April 14, 2013

Propagating Jasmine


My dad asked me to propagate some jasmine for him.  It had been planted on the arbor of a house they bought a couple of years ago and since I had not heard of yellow flowered jasmine I was not completely confident in his ID of it.  The vines are numerous, evergreen, cold hardy and drough-tolerant, oh and they smell like heaven.  First I wanted to identify it to be sure.

I looked on several websites and confirmed that it was Carolina Jasmine. Other species have white flowers and are less winter hardy so I am pretty sure that the Carolina yellow vining species is what we have growing here in Zone 7. 

  • First I got out my rooting hormone powder. 
  • Then I removed the petals and leaves from the bottom 2/3 of an 8 inch cutting of NEW vine. 
  • The older woody stems will not root as easily as the flexible new growth. 
  • Then I wet a few inches at the base of the plant and dipped it into the rooting powder. 
  • Here is where the controls for my scientific experiment come in.  What can I say I will always be a science nerd!
I decided to use three different mediums and placements for planting the propagations.
  1. I used water with a bit of rooting hormone powder mixed in and placed the vase out of the way on the kitchen counter.  
  2. I used a soil starting mixture and put my container in the greenhouse.  
  3. I used regular potting mix and placed it in a sunny spot on the windowsill. 
I expect to see some new roots in 4-6 weeks, I will update you then.

Which method do YOU think will work best?