Chinese jasmine

The first blooms of this jasmine, which I grow in a pot on the south side of the house, showed up on May 29th.

It doesn't grow like mad, like other jasmines, and it also doesn't have the awesome scent. I fell in lust with it during a visit to Portland's Chinese Garden, hunted it down, then treated it with all the respect a fickle young man treats a girl who's finally said "Yes." I couldn't say I treated it like dirt, or like bad dirt, because I treat bad dirt good! I brought this girl home, put her in a big black nursery pot for lack of anything better, and shoveled basic untreated garden dirt on top, planning to do something better soon. There she sat for four years, in a windy spot on the patio atop the garage.

She's been in this warm, protected spot, in a decent pot with great dirt, on the south side of the house, for a little over a year now, and I'd say she's doubled in size.



"What are you gonna do with those pots by the jasmine?" you ask. Well, first, let me tell you where I got them: Rite-Aid! For $4.49 apiece! They're made in Thailand of a hollow-sounding terra cotta (so bring them in for winter). The price sticker includes a five-line warning to USE AS DECORATION ONLY because the paints are "known to contain lead . . . ."

Yep, Rite-Aid drug stores. One of the formerly best-kept garden pottery secrets in town.