How convenient that I found this thread. I have a large jasmine and this year for the first time, I've had it for about 4 years, it is covered with blooms and the scent is wonderful. I can smell it throughout the back of the house, it is planted next to a terrace in the back. This plant had maybe 2 blooms the first year, and zero to one the following years. We were actually standing in front of it with the shovel to cut it down this year when I noticed it was covered in buds. It's large and unwieldy and we've tried tying it up and back with minimal success. It occupies some prime real estate, some of the only full afternoon sun in my increasingly shady garden. It's very lucky that it picked this year to be so extravagantly wonderful, I'm thinking of standing in front of a couple of other poor performers with the shovel and threatening them.
Anyway, I decided to figure out what it is and see if I accidentally gave it what it wanted and perhaps I could learn to do better with it. After googling around I think it is Jasminum Sanbac perhaps Arabian Nights. If JB or someone can confirm or give me another idea, I'd love it. I have learned from my recent googles that it blooms on new wood so I will be more aggressive in pruning it from now on. It's kind of a beast, it grows long runners and they flop around without support.
I've taken some pictures that I hope will help. First off, here is the whole thing.
A dead flower, it does not drop spent flowers, they dry up and stay on the plant.
Buds, sometimes only one per branch but mostly they are multiples
Bloom, the blooms are doubles and they are 1 - 1½ inches across.
In trying to figure out what I've done differently this year I think that it has perhaps gotten more water. I kind of ignored it before, it never did much except grown those long runners and I wasn't encouraging those. It also is a magnet for aphids and other sucking insects and this year I was more religious about putting systemic pellets on it. The leaves are still a little weak looking, the veins are darker. I could give it some potassium and magnesium which is what I do for other plants with that look but I don't want to decrease the blooming. I did feed it last week, probably for the first time this year. That smell is so intoxicating that now I will do whatever it takes to keep this puppy blooming.
