Tuesday, August 4, 2009

5 tips for making your jasmine(motia) bloom more

Arabian jasmine or jasmine sambac is locally called motia. It blooms almost all year except in winter months. Here are some tips to make it bloom more and bigger.

1- Give it moisture and water. In summer heat of lahore, this plant will drink all the water you will give it. specially those plants which are in container. Keep it moist. this can be achieved through wet trays of pebbles or misting leaves in the evening. Water in the evening instead of morning.
2- Digging and hoeing: This is what we locally call 'godi'. Do this almost every weekend or atleast every month. Purpose is to move soil beneath the surface to come up and absorb sunlight while surface soil to go beneath.
3- Protect from afternoon sun - let it give full sunlight but protect from blazing afternoon sun
4- Give it acid-loving ferilizer high in phosphorus . you can also give it water soluble/liquid fertilizer for blooming. in monsoon when temperatures drop, you can give well rotted cow manure which will promote plant's health. i usually prefer leaf mold in hot summer months. then in late summer cow manure. Also try epsom salt, it works wonders for most shrubs specially jasmine.
5- Prune it in winter. growth will be vigorous and blooms will be bigger on new growth











one more important thing. Buy indian motia instead of pakistani motia. indian one has leaves more darker and roundish than pakistani motia. it is also called labenese motia. i will also post pics differentiating the two. Another form slightly variate is called bela.

9 comments:

Wendy said...

oooh. I love jasmine and wish I could grow it here. There is no more wonderful fragrance than the jasmine I think!

James David said...

Thanks for the tip.

I have jasmine growing in my garden - helps to know more information about this plant.

Anonymous said...

my motia is spotted with black spot like infestation which is eating away my plant. any home remedy or recipie for it?

Xephyr said...

i just bought a motia plant. its in a pot right now. how big do these grow? its got around foot long stems now with active new growth. the leaves smell so nice... cant wait for the flowers to come later on!

Muhammad khabbab said...

@Anonymous - unless you post a picture, i am not sure what it is. As a try, you can spray under leaves with mild solution of washing powder and 1 drop of veg. oil.

@Xephyr - It depends on how big the pot is. Normally 14 inches pot is enough for them. Their real growth will be in spring and summer. They can grow as tall as 5 feet in 14 inches pot.

Unknown said...

Hi
Wendy, I have grown the pakistani variety of jasmine by root cuttings and it has flowered regularly for the last 10 years in my conservatory in the UK, as soon as you walk in the room the scent can sometimes be intoxicating

Shahid said...

Does anybody happen to know that how to enjoy this fragrence in America. I have tried to find this plant here but could not find it. Do you know anybody export these plants?

shambles said...

Hiya, was wondering where you got the Pakistani version of this intriguing jasmine? I have heard of it and would love to get a cutting or a plant and wait with anticipation for the intoxication to begin! Lol

hafeez said...

i have a jasmine plant in a pot and i keep it in a shade last year it gave some flowers but this year it is not giving any thing please tell me the name of acid loving rich in phosphorous fertilizer and from wher i can ge this. i live in karachi. thanks


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