This year some of my plants were a bit neglected while others got my attention and love. My tender salvias such as ‘Tubular Bells’ are usually grown in pots or with bedding plants but they did so well last year that I decided I would pop them in the main, mixed beds this year. The result is that, in the drought, they have struggled without water and they are hardly bigger than when I planted them. It is time to take cuttings for plants next year but that is impossible because they haven’t made any new growth. 

In contrast, Jasminum azoricum has been a joy. It is native to Madeira where it is very rare but it has been in cultivation for centuries. And yet it is extremely uncommon. I have not seen it for sale here but I bought my plant in Gran Canaria in a garden centre (and brought back legally). The rarity of the plant has meant that I have always treated it with kid gloves. The first winter it lived in the conservatory but, getting more sure it would survive low winter temperatures and would prefer more light in winter, it has spent the past winters in the greenhouse where, kept almost dry, it copes with 5c, and odd lower periods, with no problems, though it is not a thing of beauty, after such treatment and almost leafless by spring. 

It never grew very much and it flowered well but I felt I was treating it with too much fear. So this spring I potted it on into a large pot, with John Innes compost and some controlled-release fertiliser and hoped the enriched growing condition would stimulate growth. In previous years it had grown and flowered but not made much real growth. This was annoying because I wanted to take cuttings to try to propagate and spread the plant but there was simply no vegetative growth to use as cuttings. It has fairly neat growth and although it is a climber the growth is quite compact and neat and the foliage is attractive and there is a good proportion of flowers to foliage.

Well this year showed me the error of my ways in the past. The greenhouse has to make room for tomatoes and annuals in summer so the jasmine was put in the summer house to spill over the edge and perfume the evening air. The hot summer may have helped but it has burgeoned and has been flowering profusely and made lots of growth, so much that I have managed to take some cuttings. It has been tricky to keep cuttings taken in early August alive because of the heat but these look OK at present so I am hopeful. 

The flowers are not huge and they open from white buds, but they are wonderfully fragrant and although it is sometimes called the ‘lemon jasmine’ I would not say they are lemon-scented. But, perhaps, they lack the rather heavy, cloying scent of some jasmines (which I actually like) and they are scented throughout the day but are, predictably, stronger at night. And moths are attracted to the blooms. 

This year I also found the Asian J. laurifolium f. nitidum in a garden centre and was attracted by the deep green foliage and large, starry flowers so had to buy it. I have been a bit disappointed because it has made little growth and no new flowers but time will tell. It has the RHS AGM so someone must love it! 

But back to J. azoricum. It was first brought to mainland Europe in 1661 and was cultivated in Portugal and then spread to other countries by 1687 (Leiden) where it was grown in Botanic gardens in greenhouses. It was probably the first Madeiran native plant to be cultivated in Europe. By 1731 it was cultivated at Hampton Court Palace, probably brought from The Netherlands and, two years later at Chelsea Physic gardens. It has always remained rare in cultivation and is found wild in only two locations in Madeira. 

As for hardiness, an online trawl suggests it tolerates anything from being frost tender to tolerating light frost to surviving -17c. I think the latter is hopelessly optimistic and I won’t be risking that! For one thing, lots of the references, like most of the information on line, show photos that are obviously not this species. Don’t trust everything you read online, especially if it can be linked in any way to Elon Musk and his evil Empire. For now I will trim my plant back and put it undercover in October as soon as the first frost is forecast and keep it away from frost. It is too lovely to lose. 

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