Plant Doctor Archive

Eradicating jasmine

I HAVE a lot of jasmine and it is taking over and killing the other plants. I have trimmed it back, but I am wondering how to eradicate it?

ALTHOUGH it does have a beautiful scent when flowering in spring, the Chinese jasmine (Jasminum palyanthum) is a vigorous twining plant that can quickly become invasive. Its thin, wiry shoots send down roots wherever they touch the soil. This makes it almost impossible to eradicate by pulling or digging out and it is now on the list of banned plants in many regions.

Any of the glyphosate-based herbicides, like Roundup, Network and Glyphosate, are quite efficient at killing it off, as long as there is sufficient foliage on the jasmine for you to apply it to. A major drawback is that any desirable plant the jasmine is climbing over is also likely to get sprayed.

In my experience, Vigilant is useful in cases like this. Cut the jasmine right back, close to the ground, and immediately apply Vigilant gel to the surface of the cut shoots. The active ingredient in Vigilant will then be drawn down into the jasmine root system and should kill it.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH.