Yellow jessamine wins this year's footrace with Asian azaleas

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Our state flower is yellow jessamine, and right now, my ride to Sumter is made glorious by its presence climbing up pine trees and scrambling over the steep slopes of the causeway over the Congaree River. The glossy leaves are evergreen, and it has a black stem, an easy ID tool in the wintertime. Sometimes it blooms in conjunction with the Asian azaleas, but this year, it jumped the gun; maybe it has a different internal clock. It’s native to the southeastern United States and can survive temperatures down to minus ten; I consider myself native to the southeast but don’t want to experience that kind of cold! It makes lots of seeds that germinate easily; it can make a thicket whether you want it to or not.