LONICERA. Honeysuckle. Widespread, Northern Hemisphere. Known primarily for just two or three species, this is a large and highly variable group of shrubs and vines. Their common features are paired, more or less oval leaves and tubular two-lipped flowers, often strikingly colored. The following will thrive with sun or light shade, most soils, and moderate to regular watering. Hardiness varies.
hispidula var. vacillans. A vine for the wild garden, not wildly showy but pretty in a quiet way. It has slender stems 6-20' long, which clamber through and over nearby trees and shrubs without strangling them, spilling out into the sun. The leaves are usually from one to two inches long, broadly oval in outline, blue-green in color and furry. At the shoot tips in summer it bears open, often large, widely branched flower clusters. The flowers are only about ½" long and pale to deep pink in color, usually lighter on the inner surface. Following these are bright red, shiny berries which make a striking show. Hardy to 10oF. or less, in our material.
interrupta 'Parkfield'. This species is distinctly shrubby in form. It can make sturdy, almost treelike trunks, from which the main stems arch out in a broad fountain. The leaves are around an inch long, rather broad, and bright blue-green to light green in color. It carries many clusters of small, pale yellow flowers in the summer months and displays showy red berries, much like those of L. hispidula, in the fall. Our offering is particularly bushy and floriferous. Hardy to 10oF. or less.