My Favorite Plant - care, and appreciation, of jasmine plants - Brief Article

Flower & Garden Magazine, Sept, 2000 by Saroja Acharya

Jasmine offers attractive blooms and Distinct fragrances

We moved from India about eighteen years ago. Back home, I had a big garden with lots of tropical flowering plants. The most important one among them was my jasmine plant. The flowers of the jasmine plant are very fragrant and can be made into beautiful garlands. After coming to America, I missed my tropical garden and jasmine plant very much.

Then, fourteen years ago, a friend luckily found a nursery (quite a distance from our home) where she bought one young plant for me. I carefully nourished it for many years before it started blooming hundreds of flowers, filling my house with its wonderful fragrance.

A few years later, I was able to obtain more jasmine plants from a local nursery in town where I bought five plants, which were only about 6 inches tall. They continue to grow, though they require a lot of care, effort and fertilizer.

Because they cannot endure the severe American winters, I keep them outside only during the warmer summer months. In the fall we move the plants inside to a room with many windows full of sunshine where they stay until June. Because of their large size, it is a big exercise to move them in and out, but it's worth it, as they reward me yearlong with their lovely-scented, blooming flowers.

I am very proud of my plants, which are all now about five feet tall (I like to keep them at this height). I have shared my flowers with many old and new friends. They all come to my home especially to see these plants and seek my guidance in caring for them. Many say they are not as successful as I have been in growing these types of plants--they all say I have a "green thumb," with jasmine.

Saroja Acharya Bethlehem, PA