Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Variegata'

This variegated form of Confederate jasmine, or star jasmine, is grown as much for the foliage as the flowers. Each leathery, evergreen leaf is bordered and splashed with creamy white, often flushed pink in cool weather, and the leaves run larger than on most forms of Trachelospermum jasminoides, so the vine reads as a soft, marbled cloud of green and cream on a fence or trellis even out of bloom.

In late spring and summer the familiar white, star-shaped flowers open along the twining stems, sweetly and powerfully fragrant, and give way to long, slender, paired seed pods. Trachelospermum jasminoides is native to China and Japan, a self-clinging evergreen climber of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae; the name jasminoides, jasmine-like, records the scent and the starry flowers rather than a true kinship with the jasmines.

The species carries a long medicinal history in East Asia. The dried stems, known in traditional Chinese medicine as luo shi teng and listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, have been decocted to dispel wind-damp and ease rheumatic and joint pain, backache, and sore throat, a use shared in Korea and Japan and now studied for anti-inflammatory activity.

In the garden, grow the variegated star jasmine on an arbor, trellis, or fence, or as a bright evergreen groundcover, in good, well-drained soil and a semi-shaded to sunny spot, with irrigation through dry spells. The cream-marbled foliage lights a shaded corner and reads beautifully against darker leaves, while the summer fragrance earns the vine a place near a path, a door, or a seat. Best in the milder regions of the warm South.