March's Flower of the Month
Carolina Jassamine, Carolina Jasmine, Yellow Jessamine
(Gelsemium sempervirens)
The buttery yellow flowers of Carolina jasmine brighten the early spring landscape and offer a delicate fragrance worth stopping to savor. Down the street from our house, it blooms on a chain-link fence. Such placement brings the flowers down to eye level and allows it to be easily pruned. That should be a hint as to appropriate placement of this vigorous vine. It scrambles to the top of whatever support is available and blooms mostly on the top.
Look for Carolina jessamine as you travel along our highways. Throughout the South this native shines from the tops of trees, shrubs, and fences like strings of Christmas lights. Beware, however, for it is one of our poisonous plants. Bees have been accused of making toxic honey, cows have been killed by eating the green vines, and children have been made ill by sipping nectar from its blossoms.
Culture
Plant in the fall or early spring. Keep soil moist and fertilize sparingly during of growing period. Too much fertilizer will promote vine growth at the expense of flowers. Carolina jessamine grows rapidly once established if it has enough water. It can be pruned short after flowering in spring.
Sweetly scented, golden yellow trumpet shaped blooms cascade over the fine textured foliage from February to April. Blossoms are 1 to 1˝ inches long and are attractive to butterflies. The shiny evergreen leaves are 1 to 3 inches long on 10-to-20-foot tall vines. In cold climates it may be semi-evergreen and the leaves may turn bronze in winter.
Use Carolina jasmine on an arbor where the slender branches hung with yellow flowers can be seen from below. This plant can be used on decks and porches and near patios and entryways. It is good in containers and as a ground cover along steep banks to help control erosion.
Carolina jessamine tolerates either full sun or partial shade. Flowering is more prolific and foliage growth is denser in full sun.
Kinds
‘Pride of Augusta’, aka ‘Plena’, is a popular double-flowered cultivar that stays in bloom longer. Swamp jessamine (Gelsemium rankanii) is a native Southeastern species which flowers heavily in fall as well as in spring and has yellow flowers that are not fragrant.
Armed with this knowledge, you may find a suitable place for Carolina jessamine in your landscape. Evergreen foliage, twining vines that can mask a chain-link fence or other structure, tolerance of our heat, humidity, salt spray, and poor soil are sound reasons why it is an excellent choice. Like sparklers flung across the landscape, the golden trumpets flash and twinkle as they usher in the glory of a brand-new spring.
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