As per Dr. Gilman of UF,
"Growing in full sun to partial shade, dwarf jasmine does best on rich soil with ample moisture but will tolerate less ideal conditions. Scales or whiteflies followed by sooty mold can be a minor problem for dwarf jasmine. No diseases are of major concern."

You will find this link especially interesting. Click on the words to the left for detailed descriptions.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Jasmine Project

It's pretty fool proof here where I live. It is used extensively in the area and I've never seen a problem with it. I say go for it!

Hi Bill,

I don't have asiatic jasmine, but several of my neighbors do, and I have admired it. Seems they mostly have it in shade or part shade. I don't know if I would start with massive amounts of it unless I knew I was destined for success. Especially in full sun. Have you considered doing a small to medium area and testing it before investing in gobs of it? Since diversity is always good, have you considered planting native trees/ and or shrubs in large swathes? If you show us a pic of the area we might be able to throw out some ideas for your evaluation. As you know, I have been cutting back on grass every year, so maybe we can come up with something. Full sun and sand is a very difficult situation for most ground covers.

Anna

Thanks to you all for the information. Thanks for the link, Mary. The "rich soil" preference makes me a little nervous. I see the stuff growing around town. Some plantings look a lot better than others.

Ana, I've been working with this area for years now and I've never been satisfied with it, so I'm open to any suggestions I can get!

There are restrictions though. There is a large septic drainfield under the site, so I can't use trees or large shrubs. It is the front of the house, and we want to keep the house highly visible from the road, so again the plantings have to be low. And this is really zone 9a. We can pretty much count on a freeze every year--but rarely enough cold hours for lots of zone 8 plants.

Here are a couple of pics from last year. I'm thinking of filling all the beds with dwarf jasmine, except the shrub bed by the house, which I would leave as is.

I would just keep planting wildflowers, but they have a lot of downtime, and I want a quieter look for the front. I've tried all sorts of native grasses, wildflowers, etc, and I haven't been satisfied with them. It's always the downtime/height issues.

From another angle.

Thanks again.

Bill

We had it in Tampa. I loved it. My husband didn't. It does take awhile to really take off, but when it does it grows fast and does have to be kept in bounds. It seems to like both sun and shade. We never had any pests or diseases of any kind on it. You can actually set the mower up high and mow it if the area is too large to prune by hand. The weedwacker does tend to get tangled when the stems are really long though. I think that's why my husband didn't like it. So I would hand-prune the edges and he would go in occasionally and mow it with the highest blade level. That might also be the reason why he didn't like it because he had to adjust the blade height.

Trees near a drain field or septic tank will reach their roots out as much as 100 feet to get at the "goodies" . It is very common for a Crape Myrtle to do this.

I inherited this very problem. I am doomed to have my drain field replaced quite often due to beautiful large trees sending out their roots. Tree and shrub root ends will feather to reach into every crack and crevice of your septic system. You have never seen such a mess. My septic guy plans to see me every 5 years to clean out those roots.

annafl has some excellent suggestions. The Dioon and Coontie thrive in your neck of the woods . They stay low and green year round with no issues. Sabal palms are one of our faves besides being our state tree. They can get quite BIG when happy. One plant that has done very well for me is the dwarf crape myrtle. This one is truly a dwarf. It is blooming now. Only drawback is that it is a true Crape and loses it's leaves in the winter.

I think your'e heading in the right direction with groundcovers. This link might help. You are probably very familiar with the contents but it does give some stats on growth habits of plants mentioned above.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant List for zone 9

Ritaweeda, thanks for the information. It's encouraging to hear that it liked sun in the Tampa area. You say when the jasmine really takes off, it grows fast. How fast? This is one of my main concerns about it. I'm trying to get an idea of how much maintenance will be involved. How often did you and your husband trim and mow it? Did it require much weeding?

Thanks for the ideas, Mary and Anna. I do have a couple of crape myrtles planted near the drive, so these should eventually give some height and shade.. And I have a tall viburnum hedge at the yard's edges and some 3-4' foot tall hollies by house, but the middle area (that is, most of what you see in the pictures) really must be very low plantings--1 foot or less. The reason why is that the house is long and low, and I've found that higher plantings make the house appear to be "sinking" from the road, which bothers me. So coonties for example, which grow 3-4 feet in this neighborhood, are out, as are lots of other plants I would ordinarily like to use.

I have considered going to the opposite extreme and completely screening the house with plants, but I eventually gave up that idea for various reasons. Also the yard is quite small, and I've found that low plantings give a sense of space that I like. So what I'm really looking for is low evergreen groundcovers (other than lawngrass) that will thrive here with little care. Dwarf jasmine seems to be one of the better choices. Another candidate is shore juniper, but it seems to have more problems.

Anna, if you see anything up in Gainesville that might work for me, please let me know.

Mary, I see some plants on the list that I'm not familiar with. I'll check them out.

Thanks again.

Bill

Where I live the landscaping crew trims the jasmine every 4-6 months, so there's not really a lot of maintenance. The asiatic jasmine is very drought resistant and resistant to bugs ... you really can't go wrong with it. Plus, it's pretty.

Also it grows in both sun and shade here, looks better in the sun.

I am actually pulling jasmine out of my yard - and boy is it hard to get out! The house I bought had large beds, full of jasmine. I'm in FL 9b. The beds that looked best are in full sun, on sandy soil. This stuff grows fast when it is happy - the full sun bed was 1 foot deep in tangled vines. My beds are edged in concrete edging, and that makes maintaining the edges easier - but still they try to spill over the edges and need a lot of edging with a weed whip (at least every 2 weeks). I would not plant this stuff in an area that doesn't have solid edging. The beds where the jasmine is thin and just won't fill in properly are in filtered shade all day under a large oak. No idea why they won't fill in. The two differences are shade & more acid in the soil due to the oak leaves dropping.

I am replacing the bed in full sun with perennial peanut. Here it is used as road median planting and looks great - bright green and has yellow flowers all summer. Haven't decided what will replace the other jasmine yet, but most of it will go. The thin areas are a pain because they need a lot of weeding.

I agree that your planting beds are nicely shaped and crying out for height. What about something like bamboo muhly grass (http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/nov/02/plant-02/)? Adds some vertical height, but is open and lacy so doesn't feel solid. Can you post a picture of your yard from the street? Hard to get a sense of the "house sinking" effect you describe from pictures this angle.

Have you thought about a rock garden? Some boulders even in the 1 foot range would add interest while being low. Or a succulent garden? Agaves, yuccas, prickly pear and aloes can stand up to the full FL sun, like sandy soil and take the humidity of summer. Plus, many are very cold hardy. Aloes are the least cold hard of that list (to 8b). But they have have winter blooms which is nice. The Yucca Do Nursery is a great place to browse for desert plant ideas: http://www.yuccado.com/. These types of evergreen plants could provide some nice year round structure and then perennials like ornamental grasses, flowers and bulbs could come and go. And succulent gardens don't have to look like you live in the desert. I have enjoyed reading Debrah Lee Baldwin's book on landscaping with succulents. I never knew that succulents could look so lush! http://www.debraleebaldwin.com/SucculentGarden.htm

Good luck!

As sunworshiper says, it can get out of hand when it really starts going and is happy where it is. Every 4 to 6 months as the post before it said would probably keep it tame, but when it is let go too long, watch out! We had concrete edging also, and I also recommend using it. It actually grew up the huge tree trunk of the Chinese elm that we had in that area. I didn't mind it because I liked how it looked, but it really moves. When it got really thick it would still get a few weeds, but maybe Preen would help? It didn't get overrun but I have to be honest. I think it actually took about a year and a half to fill in completely where we planted it. (That was probably when the weeds got in.) In fact, I was getting aggravated but then when it took off I was very pleased. You know, they planted Coontie palms as a ground-cover here in one of the medians and it really looks great. It's supposed to be a low-maintenance plant. The only problem is finding it. Muhly Grass is very nice, (has beautiful soft, pink plumes in the fall) also Fakahatchee grass. But they are difficult to find also. We have gone with the low-spreading junipers here and even as thick as it is, I still have to pull weeds out of it.

Oh, Bill, I agree. If you need something less than a foot in height, that seems to be the best choice by far. Sounds like many others have it in full sun, sandy soil like your conditions, so it seems you have found a very good option. I just noticed the neighbors across the street are killing more of their grass under their oaks to plant a wider and longer area of the jasmine. Theirs really looks nice. I say go for it! Just in case, I will keep my eyes peeled when I go to Gainsville and report back if I see anything worthwhile. Good luck. Show us when it is beautiful and filled in!

Anna

Thanks again to you all for the information. Sun Worshiper, I'll try to check out that book on succulents.

One more question about the jasmine. I'm trying to figure out why the concrete edging is necessary. Does it send out underground runners like bamboo?? I have some concrete edging I can use, but the reason I took it out is because it was always making edging difficult for me.

Bill

It does not send out underground runners or root where it touches the ground. Here where I live there are no concrete borders and it looks fine.

I agree that jasmine does not send underground runners. But it is a vine, and for me it does root where it touches down. The concrete edging stands up a few inches off the ground, so about half the time the vines will hit the edging & then turn and coil back into the jasmine bed rather than spread out of the bed. Keeps it from overrunning its bounds as often. Still can spill over the edging though. Also, I have the poured continuous edging - that's much easier to work with than the individually placed concrete pavers. For me it makes edging easier - but your mileage may vary.

It occurred to me while reading this post again this morning that I don't clearly understand what your goal is for this space. What are your primary goals? Look pretty from the street? Look pretty from inside your house? Provide a nice area to walk around in? Place for kids to play? Pet friendly? Place to sit? All those things would impact what plants to choose. Looking back, I see 'look nice from the street', 'low maintenance' & 'calm' effect. Do you plan to be out in this space much - if so what time of day, and what compass direction does it face?

One of the things I thought of that could add both a bit of 'calm' and a focal point for the design is to add a fountain or bird bath. Statuary has the nice property of not having roots=) It would give you a small vertical element for the eye to rest on without obscuring the house. An elegant fountain placed in the center of a bed of jasmine could look very nice. Every plant has its place. Just because it isn't right for my yard doesn't make it a bad choice for others. Jasmine twined up a fountain or birdbath a bit would look charming. This fountain garden is sort of in the planting style you have now, so not the plant heights that you are looking for. But thought I'd include it as a link to a great resource. The BHG site has many nice design ideas to browse. Additionally here's an image of that same type of fountain in a very low planting.
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If that underlying bed was jasmine, it could look very elegant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fountain Garden

Yes, I'm going for low maintenance, looks good (from any angle) and calm. I like the fountain idea/bird bath idea. I have a birdbath off to the side where we can see it from the breakfast table window.

I found this picture in the paper this morning and it makes me want to scrap the low groundcover idea for the complete screening idea. Unfortunately I have to stick to low groundcovers. Still, this Florida yard is so gorgeous to me. Check out the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Front Yard

The links puts you at the beginning of the slide show. Go to picture #7.

Hi Bill

You are going in the right direction to have easy and beautiful landscape, that picture 7 in the slide show is a knockout!

When I lived in Phoenix I had xeriscape garden, that is my idea of beauty, it looked better than the one in the slide show from Tucson. It was like Toombstone with the decorations to go with it. As for height it only had a palo verde tree which is native and real pretty.

I will be very interested to see what you decide to do...

Silvia

Picture #7 is totally doable in your yard and all of Central Florida.
Isn't it funny that the low underlying bushes are Simpson's Stoppers?
Every plant in that picture is an excellent choice.
They are Florida Friendly, drought tolerant, low care,
rarely get pests or diseases and Hurricane resistant.
All are slow growers which means no pruning for a long time.
It would be easy to punch it up with colorful annuals
when the mood strikes you.

Glad you liked the fountain idea. The picture "#7" is beautiful. Be interested to see what you decide!

Hi Bill,

Just wanted to report back after my visit to UF at Gainesville. First off, I wanted to say there was a very large slope by a building that had a huge area of the asiatic jasmine. It was in full sun and looked great. The only thing I noticed that was not that great was that the area was so wide it could not be reached for maintenance from either side. Therefore, the long strands were visible in the central, unreachable portion, and it looked a little unkempt. So, I guess the moral of that story is to make sure it can be reached by a weedwhacker and an edger from both sides if you want to achieve a neat and tidy appearance.

A ground cover I had not thought of is dwarf Indian Hawthorne. I saw it in so many places in full sun, no care and it looked great. Although when I looked it up it said it got to 3-6 feet, I didn't see any that were higher than about two. Maybe there are newer types. Most seemed to be lower than that. I have a friend who has it here in Sarasota, and hers is about two foot. I know she doesn't prune it or do anything to it and it always looks great and blooms in the spring. I know it is higher than your criteria, but I saw so much of it that looked good, that I thought it would be worth mentioning.

I will mention another, although again, it probably doesn't meet your criteria. Wart fern as a ground cover is beautiful and carefree, maybe a foot tall or a tiny more. However, I think it does best in partial shade. I am experimenting with it this year in my garden and it is doing well and starting to spread a bit in half day sun. However, it gets late morning, early afternoon, hot direct sun. Shaded in morning and late afternoon.

I have to tell you where I am coming from. I know you are looking for visibility from the street. My DH and I are the opposite. We frequently are in the garden in our pajamas, or, in his case, a lot less! It is essential to us that we have as much privacy as possible from the street as well as all our neighbors. The first thing we did with our landcaping when we moved here (even before) was start screening in a big way. I can report that he is now able to shower outside or skinny dip in the pool after yardwork as needed. Feeling like I'm outdoors most of the day is almost essential to me. Our home has many very large windows and no window treatments! This also makes it essential to have great screening from all angles. Although I've got to say I really don't care much if someone wants to see an old lady in her pajamas through the windows at night. Although we like our yard to look nice from the street, we absolutely have to have it look nice when we look out. My viewpoint from the inside is what I work on all the time.

I just wanted to mention that I saw so many lovely, lovely vitex in bloom at UF. There were groupings with firebush (the yellow, shorter type) and coonties that were just stunning. However, some of the vitex reached 10 feet or so.
A plant I had forgotten about that I absolutely love is oakleaf hydrangea. It was not in bloom, but the foliage is so lovely on its own. I didn't know thryallis did so well up there. Crinums and European Fan Palms were absolutely beautiful.

I really like that picture #7. It is lovely and sort of what I had envisioned with the sabals, coontie, palms, etc. However, having had experience with saw palmetto, I would never plant it unless I knew it was going to be a permanent planting (although I love its look). We had a lot at another property, and tried to dig up some of it to plant something else. It involves a bobcat or backhoe. Definitely not a drainfield candidate, I don't think. I love the silvery one like in the picture, though.

Well, that's all I've got. Good luck, and whatever you do, let us know. I also love sunworshiper's fountain idea, or even a hardscape with an umbrella, a table and chair for an afternoon beverage. Have fun!

Anna

Silvia, I love desert gardens. I think it must be because Ana's a classic movie buff and in lots of those old sci-fi films from the 50's, they have the coolest desert gardens--all fake Hollywood sets, of course, and probably very misleading, but I still love them.

Mary, I think something like #7 would be great for me--if I had all your space. If I did something like that here, I'd have palmettos and simpson stopper up to the front door, and I'm afraid it would make me feel claustrophobic. And then there are still the drain field issues.

Anna, thanks so much for looking for me. What you mention about the big beds of jasmine getting unkempt in the center is an issue, so much so that I'm thinking about changing the design I had in mind.

Have you ever been to Kanapaha gardens up there? They have a chaste tree/vitex in the middle of their formal herb garden, in the mint bed, I think. It's close to 20' tall. They remove the lower limbs so you can walk under it. They are pretty trees. I saw them massed up at St. Simon's island in Georgia recently.

I would go for the screening off idea without hesitation if I didn't have such a small space and especially the drain field issues.

Thanks again to you all.

Bill

Bill, no I've never been to Kanapaha, but will try to go sometime. Our time is always limited up there. Thanks. Good luck to you and your project.

Anna

What you mention about the big beds of jasmine getting unkempt in the center is an issue, so much so that I'm thinking about changing the design I had in mind.

Not if you run a brick-paver path through the center with a round paver center court, with a fountain in it :-)

Hi Bill, I tried to stay put from this one because of my bias but obviously I failed ;-)

Tom

I have a raised septic mound (quarry sand) with asiactic drawf jasmine which is 15 yrs. old (so much for rich soil, is in full sun). I mow it with my riding mower at hightest setting, I edge with a stick edger every two weeks takes 2 mins. I plan to replace sections of my lawn with jasmine, I would like any info. on this planned project. Dave