Jasminum officinale 'Fiona Sunrise'

Jasminum officinale, the poet's jasmine, is the classic hardy jasmine of old gardens, a vigorous twining vine hung with intensely fragrant white flowers through summer. 'Fiona Sunrise' is a gold-leaved form of that familiar plant, raised at Fromefield Nursery in England and registered under the cultivar name 'Frojas': the new leaves emerge a bright chartreuse-gold, lighting a trellis or fence, and soften to green as the season goes on, while the sweetly scented white flowers open from late spring into summer.

The plant reached Woodlanders by a roundabout path. Bob McCartney first spotted a golden-leaved jasmine in a flush of chartreuse at Brent and Becky's Bulbs in Gloucester, Virginia, and called it simply 'Golden,' only to find that the selection had already been named 'Fiona Sunrise' across the Atlantic. The name carries a happy coincidence for Woodlanders, whose current steward is a Fiona herself, bringing a fresh glow to a nursery of rare and remarkable plants.

Gold foliage is the draw, but 'Fiona Sunrise' keeps every virtue of the poet's jasmine: fast, graceful, twining growth, and white flowers that release their perfume most strongly in the evening air. Grown against dark evergreens or beside purple-leaved companions, the bright leaves gleam; grown near a door, window, or seat, the evening fragrance carries.

Give 'Fiona Sunrise' a support and full sun to part shade in well-drained soil, and room to climb a trellis, arbor, fence, or pergola. The plant grows quickly and can be trained and pinched through the season to hold a shape. Site the vine where the gold foliage brightens a dull corner and the summer flowers can be enjoyed at close range.