How and When to Prune Star Jasmine

Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) is a highly popular vine that responds well when cut back to manage its size and spread, or to encourage branching for denser growth.

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These showy vines are loved for their masses of fragrant, starry white flowers, with glossy, evergreen leaves, and lush growth.

But for the first few years, they’re slow growing and pruning isn’t required.

After they’re well established, growth is steady and vigorous, although it’s not rampant.

Generally well-behaved, an annual or biannual trim or light cutback can help to enhance blooming by encouraging branching and bushiness, and this helps to maintain an appealing shape and size. 

Cutting vines back hard is typically only needed to rejuvenate old, overgrown, or neglected plants.

A twining perennial in areas with mild winters, these easy-care vines are resilient and quickly recover from cutting back, spreading freely once more!

So if it’s time to reshape, resize, or revitalize your T. jasminoides, let’s get into how and when to cut back star jasmine.

Here’s the lowdown on what’s ahead:

The growing tips of star jasmine remain fairly small and are easily cut with clean, sharp garden shears, extension loppers, or hedge trimmers.

Manual cutting is the preferred method of pruning, but for large swaths of vines and foliage – like a ground cover – using hand tools can quickly become labor intensive and tedious.

For big jobs, an electric hedge trimmer or a string trimmer is the way to go.

And for lofty spots, an extendable pruner is a handy alternative to climbing up ladders – something I’m not crazy