How to Germinate Orange Jasmine Seeds

Gather a handful of berries from a mature, established orange jasmine shrub once they ripen and turn reddish-orange in color. Soak the berries in a bowl full of room temperature water for 48 hours to soften the flesh.

Gently rub the berries between your fingertips to loosen the flesh from the green, pea-like seeds inside. Soak the berries for another 12 hours, or until the flesh separates from the seeds and floats to the surface.

Remove the seeds from the water. Locate the long, shallow cleft that runs lengthwise along each seed. Insert your fingernail or the tip of a nail file into the cleft and pry the two halves apart since each are individual seeds.

Sow the orange jasmine seeds into individual 6-inch-deep plastic pots filled with a mixture of 4 parts potting soil and 1 part perlite. Bury one seed in each pot under a 1/4-inch-thick layer of soil.

Pour 1/2 cup of water into each pot whenever the top half-inch of soil dries out. Maintain light to moderate moisture in the soil at all times during the germination process.

Apply bottom heat to the orange jasmine seeds using a greenhouse heat mat set to 70 F. Stretch a portion of plastic wrap over the pots to hold in the heat. Be sure to put the plastic wrap back in place each time you water the seeds.

Watch for germination in seven to 14 days. Remove the plastic wrap as soon as the orange jasmine seeds germinate. Lower the temperature on the greenhouse warming mat to 65 F after sprouting.

Move the orange jasmine seedlings to a warm, sheltered spot where they will receive bright, indirect sunlight throughout most of the day. Transplant them into permanent planters or an outdoor bed once they grow to 6 inches in height.