Plant of the Week
Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium Sempervirens)
Carolina jessamine is a great twining evergreen vine that's native from Central to Eastern areas of Texas, and is very common in the Southeastern U.S.
It's a wonderful choice for a trellis or an arbor. It does grow a little slowly at first, so give it a little extra water during its first year. If it's planted without support, it will mound up on itself and have a very different look than you might expect. It may also be used a sprawling groundcover if you keep it pruned back regularly to keep it in bounds.
It flowers in spring with large, trumpet-shaped fragrant yellow flowers. Because it flowers in spring, avoid pruning in winter because you'll clip off this year's flowers. Wait until summer to regularly prune it to shape.
Carolina jessamine performs best in full sun, but does tolerate partial shade. In partial shade it will ramble more because it's searching for light, and it will have fewer flowers and sparser foliage.
Once this plant's established, it needs only moderate water. It does prefer sandy, moist soil but it will easily tolerate our heavier clays here in Central Texas.
It gets 10-20' tall with support, and 4-8' wide. But it's a good alternative to more aggressive trumpet vines, which have similar flowers.
And once our temperature gets cooler, the leaves will turn a bit bronze. It's hardy to zone 6, which is 2 zones colder than us here in Central Texas zone 8, at least normally!
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