Jasmine Box

Jasmine Box (Phillyraea) - Distinct shrubs from the south of Europe, at one time among our best evergreens in the south. Farther north they are tender in hard winters. The newest kind, and the hardiest and best, is Vilmorins Jasmine Box (P. decora), with laurel-like leaves and fragrant white flowers in early spring. Coming from the mountains of Asia Minor, this will withstand severe frost, is free from insects and disease, and quite at home in town gardens. The flowers are sometimes followed by black fruits like a sloe, containing seed by which the plant is readily increased. Nurserymen have found that the Phillyraea unites readily with Privet, so that nearly all their stock is grafted, and the plants die out just as they should be in full beauty. This has helped to give the group a bad name, but for shore gardens of light soil there are few better shrubs.

The kinds from the Mediterranean are classed as three species, but they vary so much from seed and are so closely connected by intermediate forms as to be better treated as one variable kind. There is first the Narrow-leaved Phillyraea (P. angustifolia), 15 feet or so in height, with long narrow leaves which may be small and narrow, as in rosmarinifolia, a fine dwarf evergreen from Italy. P. latifolia reaches the size of a small tree of 30 feet, with rigidly spreading branches, a compact habit of growth, and broad deep green leaves. To it belong several forms—the Holly-leaved (P. ilicifolia), which is one of the best known; laevis, with rounded leaves and saw-like edges; spinosa, in which the edges are more sharply toothed; and rotundifolia, with broadly rounded leaves. Between angustifolia and latifolia comes P. media, intermediate in size and vigour as well as in its leaves. Strangely enough, it is also the most tender, many plants having been cut to the ground or killed outright in the winter of 1880. This also has several forms, such as buxifolia, with short rounded leaves; oleaefolia, in which they are longer and narrower; and pendula, with a diffuse habit. All do best in light open soils and in full sun, and all are of fine habit without much pruning, though they will bear this if necessary and make thick, handsome hedges. All the kinds bear greenish-white flowers, but only in P. decora are they large enough to attract.

• Winter Squash Plants Photos
• Sugar Maple Tree Picture
• What Plants Grow in Winter

• Gardenia Plant Care
• Jasmine
• How to Build an Outdoor Fireplace
• Honeysuckle
• Maple Tree Diseases

• Box Thorn
• Window Boxes
• Jerusalem Sage
• Privet
• Category:Shrubs