2011 Theodore Klein Plant Award Winner

Gelsemium sempervirens is a showy evergreen vine with glossy fine-textured foliage about 1/3 as wide as long. It is native to the southeastern United States and Central America. The yellow flowers are attractive under close observation and eye-catching from a distance. Mike Dirr describes 'Margarita' as "Cold hardy form, fragrant, flowers slightly larger than species (TKPA committee observation also); selected from seedlings sent by Tom Dodd, Jr. to Gene Cline, Canton, GA, listed as 'Gene Cline' in Hillier Manual." North Creek Nurseries has it listed as "a reliable zone 6 Gelsemium" and has it a part of the American Beauties Native Plants®. North Creek reports this cultivar to be a suerior seedling selected by Don Jacobs, Eco Gardens. Propagated with high success as late summer cuttings treated with IBA and placed under mist. Pennsylvania Horticulture Society Gold Medal Plant (Styer Award) 2005.