Crepe Jasmine

Crepe Jasmine

Tabernaemontana divaricata

(tab-er-nay-MON-tah-nuh) (dy-vair-ih-KAY-tuh)

Synonym: Tabernaemontana coronaria, Crape Jasmine

This was the last plant I saw at the Botanical Gardens in Orlando. I had no idea it was a Jasmine. Now I am wishing I had smelled the flowers but there was no detectable odor from them. After a long walk through the big Camellia collection the Pinwheel flower as at the end. It grows more as a shrub than most Jasmines and had a neat rounded appearance. It is considered a nocturnal bloomer so maybe that is when the fragrance really comes out.

In Zone 10 it can bloom year round and actually grow into a little tree. The plants do have the ability to bounce back after bouts with freezing temperatures.

Black and White Jasmine

Black and White Jasmine
Jasminum
(JAZ-mih-num)
Click Here for a Larger Version

I a pretty sure this was Angelwing Jasmine (Jasminum nitidum) but it didn’t seem to have the twining vine habit of that plant. This is a photograph that I wish had paid more attention to the plant for identification purposes. The fragrance was enchanting and is still lingering in my mind. This picture was shot in monochrome with the D700 and the 105mm Vr lens. Looking back it probably could have been slightly more exposed but at least the whites didn’t blow out.

It will be a little while until we are back on east coast time. This next picture is pretty much what my day consisted of yesterday, watching the planes pull in and out of LAX. This was shot with the Coolpix P6000. It is nice to have kind of a small incognito camera because I am not sure about the photography rules at airports these days. This plane is an American Airlines 767-200 and it was bound for JFK. According to Wikipedia the 767-200ER is:

“The extended-range variant of the original Boeing 767, the 767-200ER, was first delivered to El Al in 1984. This model became the first 767 to complete a nonstop transatlantic journey, and broke the flying distance record for a twinjet airliner on April 17, 1988, with an Air Mauritius 767-200ER flying 8,727 nautical miles (16,162 km) between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Port Louis, Mauritius. The 767-200ER became popular overseas with smaller operators seeking wide-body airliners but not needing the 747's capacity.”

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Ours was the next flight an hour later but was cancelled.

Confederate Jasmine and a Hummingbird Nest

Confederate Jasmine
Trachelospermum jasminoides
(tray-key-low-SPER-mum)
Synonyms: Star Jasmine, Rhynchospermum jasminoides

The Star Jasmines have been a big success despite the weather. This is the first year I have used this plant and it has really just been a pleasure to have in the garden. We are using the three plants in big pots. They came already trained on little trellises. The plants haven’t really grown much taller but they have been flowering non-stop. The beautiful fragrance is probably one of the most refined that I have ever smelled in the garden. About a half and hour after we put them in place the owner came out and asked what the wonderful smell was. The smell had been wafting in the windows of the house.

There is a mixture of things growing under the Jasmines and they have all seemed to coexist well. There are Petunias, Million Bells, Sweet Potato, Verbena, Angelonia and a few other annuals. Confederate Jasmine is hardy to USDA Zone 8, which is about 10 degrees F. That isn’t going to make it around here, which is really too bad. I am going try to bring it inside but something tells me it isn’t going to like the heat of the greenhouse.

Every once in awhile I come across something extraordinary at work. There isn’t much that is shocking or awe inspiring from a discovery point of view anymore. However this week there were two things that were wondrous. The first was one Monday when after reaching into a buried irrigation valve box I felt something slimy. It turned out to be a Giant Garden Slug (Limax maximus). It was about 5 inches long and an inch wide. Easily the large slug I had ever seen. Earlier in day we were wondering where the Petunias went (they were almost totally eaten) and this discovery made it much clearer. Here are a couple of pictures of the second lesson nature’s classroom showed me.


This is a Hummingbird nest. Using a ladder and a 20 foot pole saw we were pruning the lower limbs off some American Beech Trees yesterday. When cleaning up the mess I noticed the little nest. It was quite amazing in construction and sorry about the quality of these photos but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. The second photo shows some of the lichen shingling. There was quite a bit of spider silk used on the outside. I am not sure what the inside was made out of but it was soft, tightly knitted and looked cozy.

Winter Jasmine

Winter Jasmine
Jasminum nudiflorum
(JAZ-mih-num) (noo-dee-FLOR-um)
Synonym: Hardy Jasmine, Jasminum sieboldianum

This Jasmine is hardy to USDA Zone 6. That is a low zone for a Jasmine. It lived in New Canaan, Connecticut for about 12 years before a really bad winter took it out. It is a great plant to have in the garden and it can start flowering late in the fall and depending on the winter bloom until early spring.

This picture was taken on March 24th of this year. The plant was just about done flowering so you can see it is a good candidate for the winter garden. It is always a welcome sight for me. It can be a bit rangy but responds well to pruning, including light shearing or rejuvenation type pruning. The yellow flowers fade to a papery white. Yellow flowers seem to taking over this blog :lol:

This Jasmine is a little different than the Primrose Jasmine I posted earlier this week. This plant is one of only a few of the 200 species of true jasmines that is not fragrant. It is also a lot hardier than the Primrose type. Winter Jasmine does best in full sun but can grow in part shade.

Primrose Jasmine

Primrose Jasmine
Jasminum mesnyi
(JAZ-mih-num) (MES-nee-eye)
Synonyms: Chinese Jasmine

Wordless Wednesday

Brazilian Jasmine
Mandevilla
(man-de-VILL-uh)

Hybrid Columbine
Aquilegia 'Songbird Blue Jay'
(a-kwi-LEE-jee-a)

Yellow Flowers

Yellow Flowers

This is my first Daffodil of the 2008 season. I guess it is kind of cheating since it was growing indoors. It was such a bright and happy yellow that I just had to grab a snap of it. I have kept my eye out on the Estate for the first Daff but all there are a few buds so far. I am surprised since there are a lot of early blooming cultivars including ‘February Gold’ (they usually blooms in early March despite its name). The anticipation has been grueling.

“Daffodils that come before the swallow dares, and takes the winds of March with beauty.”
William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale


Another Asian Corsage Orchid from the NY orchid Show. This one was literally glowing. Of all the Orchids I photographed at the show the Cymbidiums seemed to have come out the best. The official name of this Orchid is Cymbidium Sussex Dawn x Via Verde Dawn ‘Citron Alba’.


"Jasmine is sweet, and has many loves."
Thomas Hood, Flowers

Golden Geranium and Jasmine

These two pictures were taken at Wave Hill last summer. The sunlight was lighting the golden foliage nicely. I like plants with golden foliage for accents in the garden. Over the years I have become more and more agreeable to having yellow in the garden. When I was growing up our nursery grew large crops of Geraniums and it is amazing to me the cultivars and choices that are available today. Here is a link to a big grower of different fancy types. I am not sure about their customer service or their plants but the have an extraordinary collection offered.

Fancy Leafed Geraniums

If you look closely around their site you can get a free offer if you live in the EU. I am not sure which Geranium this is but it was striking and along with the green and white variegated and the tricolor it is one of my favorites.

Poet's Jasmine
Jasminum officinale 'Fiona Sunrise'
(JAZ-mih-num) (oh-fiss-ih-NAH-lee)

I had never seen this plant before snapping this picture. Talk about color! It was growing in a container so I think they take it inside as it is rated for USDA Zone 8 although there have been some reports of this vine being hardy to Zone 6. Unfortunately it was not blooming but produces fragrant white flowers during the summer and fall.


This is an abstract of some Butterfly wings I took the same day.

Two More Winter Bloomers

Two More Winter Bloomers

I have been keeping my eyes open for flowers and in addition to the Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) that was featured here recently I found my Winter Jasmine and Chinese Witch Hazel blooming. My hat goes off to these plants, which despite the cold temperatures and biting winds have come out to add a little color to the winter landscape.

Weeping Winter Jasmine
Jasminum nudiflorum
(JAZ-mih-num) (noo-dee-FLOR-um)
Synonym: Jasminum sieboldianum

This is an interesting and underused shrub that brings some winter interest to the garden. This one only had a few flowers right now but later in the winter and with the help of a few mild days it will be in full bloom. It can be effective cascading over stonewalls or on sloped banks. While it is rated for USDA Zone 6 I think it does better in Zone 7. If you are planting it in Zone 6 try and chose a warm sheltered location for it.

Following its species name, nudiflorum, its flowers emerge before the foliage. The leaves themselves are small and not very showy. Even with some sporadic flowering later in the year this shrub tends to fade in the background but it emerges very bright right when you need that the most. This Western China native can be difficult to buy, it isn’t offered that often, but is definitely worth the hunt for the medium and larger garden.

Chinese Witch Hazel
Hamamelis mollis ‘Pallida’
(ham-uh-MEE-lis) (MAW-liss)

There seems to be a little cloudiness in regards to the naming of this plant. It seems a lot of people also call it Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida' and you can find it listed under that name also. I am going to let the botanists fight that one out. When I first starting growing this Witch Hazel I was less than enchanted with this one but over the years this shrub has proved to be a reliable bloomer and a good garden citizen. It doesn’t take much upkeep (a great benefit in my mind) other than cutting the occasional sucker from under the graft I also top mine since I don’t really want to have it grow to the full height of 15 feet. Sometimes the dead leaves hang on through the winter and they should be removed to see the full glory of the flowers. ‘Pallida’ is superior to the species mainly because of the heavier flowering. Plant it with an eye towards it being a large shrub but also keep in mind you will want to enjoy the flowers and fragrance up close.

This plant was first collected in China around 1870 and ‘Pallida’ was first cataloged by the RHS in the 30’s. It likes well-drained soil that has organic matter in it. It can benefit from a yearly dressing of leaf-mold compost.

White Flowers

White Flowers

Like the post of last week on Pink Flowers I had a few photos of white flowers hanging around and thought I would do a post on them. I really like white in the garden as it pretty much mixes with any other color for me. It looks good set off by a dark background. I am not a fan of all white gardens but that is just personal taste, I would never put someone down for having one.

I always thought this first plant was called Star Jasmine but I have found out that is more correctly called Angelwing Jasmine. The scientific name is Jasminum nitidum and it has several other synonyms including Shining Jasmine and Confederate Jasmine. I guess calling it Star Jasmine is okay since I found several references with that name, but there are several other plants that have that name also. Maybe some of the Zone 9 and above gardeners can chime in on the best common name. I have been growing this one at work and it grew well this year and was blooming when I moved it back inside a couple of weeks ago. The flowers really have a nice scent and it doesn’t seem to require too much care. It is suppose to bloom at night but mine usually has flowers open during the day as this picture was taken around midday.

Here is a link to more information on growing Jasmine outdoors, something I can’t do.

Floridata Jasimine Page


This second white flower is an unnamed Orchid that showed up as a gift to the greenhouse. It has been around for over a year and just started blooming again. I don’t know anything about it other than it has been blooming for a long time. I think the yellow leaves are an adjustment to the conservatory after spending the summer outside.


Finally this is the cushion mum, Alexis. I couldn’t find any information on this one. It was a good performer this year and I think I will take it out of the container and plant it in the ground. It looks almost yellow when the buds are coming out and then goes to white.

My watch stopped working on Saturday. I guess it was like me and didn’t want to go off Daylight Savings Time. It sure got dark early yesterday. Now I have to try and find a battery for it. It has been a good watch that lasted three years, which is probably a record for me. Despite my protests Karen bought an expensive watch so it is not disposable.