Shot 3/11. The blooms are all gone now. Came across this article about it today and I'll quote...
"Carolina Jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, was adopted as South Carolina's flower 'way back in 1924--long before legislatures began arguing over what should be a state's official beverage (in South Carolina, it's milk) or dance (the Shag) or Opera (Porgy & Bess). We concur that Carolina Jessamine was a splendid choice for the state's flower, and--like the official tree (Sabal Palmetto) and bird (Carolina Wren)--it's a symbol South Carolina doesn't have to share with any other state. (By comparison, three states have designated the dogwood as the official tree and/or flower, and no less than SEVEN lay claim to the Northern Cardinal as THEIR state bird.)
Carolina Jessamine was selected as the official flower by South Carolina's General Assembly because "it is indigenous to every nook and corner of the State; it is the first premonitor of coming Spring; its fragrance greets us first in the woodland and its delicate flower suggests the pureness of gold; and its perpetual return out of the dead of Winter suggests the lesson of constancy in, loyalty to, and patriotism in the service of the State." Despite all this flowery legislative language, Carolina Jessamine doesn't grow just within the Palmetto State. It is found from southeastern Virginia to Florida and west to Texas, but in our experience achieves its finest displays throughout South Carolina's Coastal Plain, where it literally blankets large shrubs or snakes its way high into sun-drenched pines and hardwood trees (below). In the absence of vertical support, it even forms its own thickets, rambling over open ground and growing into a tangle a foot or so deep."
@365jgh Thank you, Judy!
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