Introducing the Benefits of Growing Jasmine
Jasmine is one of those overwhelmingly intoxicating fragrances. Up there with orange blossom, eucalyptus, and rose, jasmine has always been known as one of the most pleasant smells around. You’ve smelled the flower, the oil, or the notes of a perfume, but turns out there is a lot more behind jasmine than just a pretty scent.
Jasmine is most often grown as an ornamental plant to help soften garden borders or to use to decorate an arbor or trellis, but jasmine flowers and jasmine leaves can provide you with far more than just a lovely garden.
This article is going to go through a couple preliminary details about the jasmine plant and all of the details of the health benefits of this incredible plant. The more you learn about plants, the more you realize that they are nothing but giving, and all they ask for in return is generosity and a little care.
A Little Bit About Jasmine…
Jasminum officinale is a shrubby vine plant that is part of the olive plant family. This species is native to large, tropical and subtropical areas like Southeastern Asia and Australia, but there are over 200 different species that are cultivated all around the world.
Jasmine plants can be either deciduous or evergreen (meaning that some varieties will keep their leaves all year round, whereas others will drop them when the cold seasons approach) and can grow to be 15-20 feet in length or height, depending on how you’re training them to grow.
These wonderful plants can live in your garden all year round as long as you live in USDA growing zones 6 through 10, but they should be grown in containers and brought indoors for the harsher months if you live outside of those zones.
Jasmine plants will often bloom starting in the spring and if they’re kept happy they can keep their blooms all the way until the fall! The majority of jasmine plants will have white flowers, some are yellow, and very rare varieties will bear pink flowers.
The Benefits of Growing Jasmine
1. Elevates the Garden
Though it can be a little bit tricky to get a jasmine plant started, once you get the hang out it you’ll find that it’s a wonderfully adaptable and tolerant climbing plant. If you can keep it happy, this vigorous climber can help soften garden borders or decorate an arbor or trellis.
Though its foliage is rather lovely, jasmine is mainly grown for its blooms. Jasmine flowers have a wonderfully strong fragrance that will waft throughout your entire garden, especially in the evenings once the temperature has cooled down and the oils are at their highest potency.
2. Acts as an Antioxidant
Jasmine leaf extract is known for being super high in antioxidants. Things like blueberries are also rich in antioxidants, which are known for preventing the oxidization process of your cells which is what causes aging and sickness.
Antioxidants are known to reduce and remove potentially harmful oxidizing chemicals from your body, which is highly beneficial for your immune system but also helps keep your skin, hair, and nails healthy!
3. Great for Skin & Hair
Jasmine oil is very commonly used for its essential oils on hair and on skin. Jasmine oil is very light and doesn’t give a greasy effect. It’s successful at penetrating the hair shaft and cuticle which can treat your hair very deeply with hydrating properties.
4. Elevates Mood
There are so many benefits that jasmine can provide for your mind. Jasmine essential oil is very popular when it comes to aromatherapy. It’s one of the most relaxing scents that you can use, but it does more than just help you relax.
Jasmine fragrance is known to encourage feelings of peace, feeling uplifted and optimistic, and helps with feelings of anxiety and depression. It’s also known to help with symptoms of insomnia because of its peaceful and calming effects.
Funnily enough, jasmine is also known to energize. Aromatherapy users have reported feeling more alert and energized, and in some cases jasmine has been known to have aphrodisiac properties since it boosts your mood!
5. Overall Health Boost
There are tons of benefits that jasmine extract can give your body as well. Folks with type 2 diabetes have found that the green tea leaves of jasmine can help reduce your blood glucose levels.
Jasmine can also act as a helpful prebiotic! It’s chock full of polyphenols that can help keep your gut micro biome healthy and diverse. This also helps support your anti inflammatory system.
6. Natural Air Freshener
Scattering fresh sprigs of jasmine flowers around your home is a great way to ensure there is a constant calming scent floating around. These flowers can last for at least a week in a vase and the smell will waft throughout your home, providing a completely natural and intoxicating fragrance experience.
How do you Grow Jasmine?
Now that you’ve learned a bit about all of the wonderful things about jasmine, chances are that you’re curious about how to keep a jasmine plant happy! As long as you have a little bit of patience and understand what the plant wants, you’ll have gorgeous smelling blooms in time at all.
Jasmine needs to be planted in an area of your garden that receives either full sun or very partial shade. Though they can benefit for some afternoon shade in super hot areas, they can handle fully sunny areas. They also need to be sheltered from strong wind areas as well.
Make sure to plant your jasmine plant in well draining soil that is super right in organic matter. This is convenient since amending your soil with compost will increase its fertility, but it will help provide better drainage as well.
When it comes to watering your jasmine plant, it likes to live in consistently moist soil. So depending on how hot the summer is and how many sunny days there are, you can plan on watering your jasmine plant 1-3 times per week.
One super important part of jasmine care is pruning. Pruning away any shoots that seem sickly or like they’re growing in an awkward direction can be pruned away to make way for new healthier shoots!
FAQs
How tall do jasmine plants get?
If a jasmine plant is happy it can grow to be anywhere from 15 to 20 feet in height or length! This is entirely dependent on the growth habit of your plant, whether it is more shrubby or more like a vine.
Can you make your own jasmine extract?
Making extracts for perfumes or aromatherapy is actually far easier than you may think. The most essential part of this process is having patience and time, as doing it yourself can be a rather time consuming process.
All you need is some jasmine flowers and some sort of carrier oil that is in solid form, I find that coconut oil is the best for this. Press the coconut oil in the bottom of a sealable container and take your jasmine flowers and set them face down on the oil, covering the entire surface.
Keep the container in a cool, sunless area overnight. Then take the jasmine flowers off in the morning and repeat the process with fresh flowers two more times. After this point, the coconut oil will be infused with the jasmine flower fragrance, and you can then use the coconut oil however you please!
Is jasmine good for aromatherapy?
Jasmine is one of the most popular and widely recognized scents when it comes to aromatherapy. It is truly one of the most appealing options if you’re looking for a fragrance that encourages relaxation and serenity. Not to mention it’s just one of those smells that stops you in your tracks when you come upon it.
What USDA growing zones can jasmine grow in?
These wonderful plants can live in your garden all year round as long as you live in USDA growing zones 6 through 10, but they should be grown in containers and brought indoors for the harsher months if you live outside of those zones.
When do jasmine flowers bloom?
The blooming period for jasmine plants will vary according to the species and where they are growing, but they are known to start blooming in the early summer, and their blooms can grace your garden all the way until the fall. Different parts of the plant will blossom throughout the season.
