Usually with Jasmine you do need to transfer often anyway. With the vine form, not sure? Anyway a point will come where it is root bound, and that will happen before the soil breaks down. The soil should last 2-3 years. Change soil when you repot. After a while you may not have enough room for a bigger pot, and instead can trim the roots down, repot with new soil. You will need to fertilize after 6 months. I prefer to add my own micronutrients with say a kelp powder or liquid, or azomite or both.. I have found it more effective to use various products to ensure proper nutrition. These additives never really hurt anything if not needed. They can be added to water. All potting soils these days are soilless mixes. Even the 5-1-1 mix is going to breakdown with time. Using a more mineral soil that will not breakdown is an option, but I prefer to use the soilless mixes and just maintain them with fresh soil at repotting. You might want to try Happy Frog or Fafard. I found these potting mixes far superior to Miracle Grow. As far as more leaves, that may come with time. If not you may try adding another plant, or a different jasmine. Many fragrant types exist that might work better.

Mara, did you read above that the star jasmines sold today in nurseries are likely to be the Madison variety even if not labeled as such? It seems when a superior cultivar is introduced and it's not possible to tell the difference by looks alone that it will be propagated rather than the old variety and if not named no royalties have to be paid. I was told that by someone in the nursery business when I was searching for Madison without success. I tend to believe it seeing how my neighbor James' plants were more hardy than what I had. Did the above ground stems on yours split? Keep us posted on whether they return and I will do the same.

I recently bought the 36" RCS. I really wanted the RNB, for the more powerful burners (mainly this honestly), the slightly nicer finish, and the fully extendable oven rack, but the price difference and the fact that we only sear fish on the stove (don't need as high a heat as you would for other meat) led us to go with the RCS. I've only been able to really use it for the last 10 days or so, as we waited for our hood to be installed to put it to the test. So far it's amazing. I've made a couple of stir fry recipes and I thought about turning the heat down a bit it was cooking the veggies so quickly :-) I didn't, but unlike with my old range, I had to actually pay attention the whole time or the food would've burned. Plenty of power! The stir frys turned out great! We've seared fish, both tuna and swordfish, and both were done perfectly and had a wonderful sear. Carmelizing onions is a dream also! Things cook faster and better. I'm very happy with the power the RCS has and believe me, I didn't think it would be this good. Our old range had 12K open burners and I didn't think the 15K would be that much of an upgrade. I was wrong! I was kind of disappointed we didn't go for the RNB, thinking it was a mistake not to get more power, and we were settling. I don't think that now at all. For our needs the RCS is fantastic! My old range didn't have a fully extendable oven rack so I don't miss that. The racks slide easily and the oven works perfectly. I've made lasagna, roasted veggies, cookies and bread, and all have turned out great. I think if you sear a lot of steaks or chicken (though I think chicken would be fine on the RCS) you may want the power of the RNB burners. I'll let others with the RNB or RCS who cook them chime in on that. Other than possibly needing the 22K burners for that, the 15K burners on the RCS have plenty of power imo. And definitely get a powerful hood to go over whichever range you decide to purchase. I ended up buying a 42" Prizer hood with a 1200cfm blower after much deliberation. Hardest appliance to decide on for me. My dh thought it was overkill but not after using it. It works really well. It's loud when it's on high but not ridiculously loud. And low and medium are actually low enough that you can converse in the kitchen and be heard.

Did you buy the plants at the same time? There are different varieties of star jasmine, and one may have larger blooms or be more cold hardy than another. Is one in a pot and the other planted in the ground? A plant in the ground is usually better off than one in a pot. Its roots are better protected from winter cold, and most soil is moderately fertile. Potting soil has almost no nutrient value; its primary attribute is the fact that it is sterile medium—no disease organisms. You have to add fertilizer, and not just NPK, but the micro nutrients necessary for healthy growth. You did say you may have used more fertilizer on the plant with the larger blooms. This is the most likely reason. If they are both in pots did you use the exact same potting soil when transplanting them? I have seen major differences in different bags of the same brand of potting soil. Even expensive brands have disappointed one bag to the next. .