Garden Pic Wednesday: Summer Snowflakes & Winter Jasmine!

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I have things in my garden I don't know the names of, but I like to. So, I spent this morning searching the web, trying to figure out what these flowers I have are:
Let me introduce you to Summer Snowflakes!


These are a member of the Snow Drop family of early spring bloomers.
There is also a "Spring Snowflake" that performs better further north, according to what I read, but the "Summer Snowflake" is best for the deep south.
It looks something like a giant Lilly of the Valley, with a row of 3 to 5 white bells with the little green markings.
 It's sort of an old fashioned heirloom flower obtained by passing from gardener to gardener. I've never seen it in garden catalogs.
It's a bulb which I got from extensive, but abandoned garden, that was behind the flower shop where I used to work.
(The lady who used to own the flower shop lived in an apartment behind the business portion and cared for the garden until she died.)
She liked sharing her garden stuff when she was alive and gave me some of her Spider Lilies then, so I knew she wouldn't mind me having more of what she loved from her garden to add to mine to be enjoyed.That's also where I got the next featured photo shrub, which I grew from a cutting.

Winter Jasmine:


Winter Jasmine can be trained as either a vine on a trellis or as shrub. I keep mine a tidy shrub. It blooms yellow flowers once in early spring on nearly bare branches, like a cascade of sunshine!
It's leafy green all summer with a draping habit. I keep it small, but left to itself, it could run everywhere and sprawl into a 6 foot shrub.
It requires no other care besides trimming and is pest free.
(It is not Allamanda or Yellow Bells. Winter Jasmine blossoms are flat, without a trumpet throat, have 6 petals and bloom just once a season.)
They look very much like tiny, one inch size hibiscus flowers.

Other things I procured from the heirloom garden behind the flower shop include: the orange spider lilies, yellow flag iris, a yellow day lily and a burgandy day lily with a bright lime throat. (The burgundy lily is usually featured on the December page of my Daylily Noir Calendar.)
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That's it for today. Hope you learned something, too!
Come back tomorrow for Mama Kat!

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