There is a yellow blooming shrub cascading in a landscape near St. John’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury.

The profuse bloomer looks very much like our spring blooming forsythia, but it’s early January, much too early for forsythia to be in bloom.
The yellow blooming shrub in question is Winter jasmine (jasminum nudiflorum).

The shrub tends to flow and has green stems normally blooming in late winter, but admittedly, this showy bloomer is somewhat confused.
The warmer weather has prompted the shrub to show its bloom a little earlier than its normal February bloom date.

Forsythia, which has a strong resemblance, will bloom a little later in the spring, usually in March.
Winter Jasmine adapts well in a variety of landscapes from steep slopes, to raised beds to overhanging walls.

Drought tolerant, disease resistant and tolerant to deer, the early bloomer can also withstand a partial shady landscape surviving in both sandy and heavy clay soils.
Go to https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/all/jasminum-nudiflorum/ for more detailed information about the hardy, winter-bloomer Winter jasmine.

 

Darrell Blackwelder deblackw@ncsu.edu is the retired horticulture agent and director with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service in Rowan County.

 

Go to  https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/all/jasminum-nudiflorum/ for more detailed information about the hardy, winter-bloomer Winter jasmine.

 

 Darrell Blackwelder deblackw@ncsu.edu is the retired horticulture agent and director with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service in Rowan County.