Cestrum parqui Seeds | Willow-leaved Jessamine
LATIN NAME: Cestrum parqui
COMMON NAME: Willow-leaved Jessamine
Plant Profile
Known to gardeners as Willow-leaved Jessamine, Cestrum parqui is an evergreen shrub. It grows quickly into loose, leafy form, and it stands warm, dry climate well. It likes sun, and deep, well-drained soil. Add these qualities together and you have a species well worth a place in the garden.
Science & Biotechnology
Research touching on Cestrum parqui ranges from the botany of the Cestrum group to practical horticulture, including seed handling, propagation and the selection of superior forms. Willow-leaved jessamine shows a steady presence in studies of night-scented shrubs, and parqui species appears in work on tubular-flower perfumes and dusk-opening blooms. Because it has been grown for so long, its garden habits are thoroughly documented.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Willow-leaved Jessamine earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. Near old wall, willow-leaved jessamine opens green-yellow tubes into evening air. Dusk perfume drifts across garden, berries feed birds, and shrub makes fine scent plant, warm-wall specimen and evening garden plant. Every part of shrub holds bitter alkaloids, so grow it for scent and keep it for eyes only. Getting it going is easy; keeping it going is easier still.
Cestrums are fragrant tropical shrubs grown for their night perfume; several are toxic, so they are ornamentals only.
Growing from Seed
Sow fresh seed of Willow-leaved Jessamine under ordinary good conditions. Broadcast the seed thinly over a fine, free-draining compost, sieve a little more compost on top, and water with a fine rose. When the young plants are big enough to handle, space them into pots or a nursery row and let them size up before their final move.
Our Take
Being an evergreen shrub, it asks for a permanent spot and repays it yearly. Established seedlings need little beyond ordinary attention.
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