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.
‘Dropmore Scarlet’. A fine hybrid of the trumpet honeysuckle, L. sempervirens. It is shrubby if free-standing, vining with support, and grows at a moderate pace. Its attractive bluish green leaves are nearly evergreen in mild climates, deciduous in cold winters. Many large, unscented scarlet flowers are clustered at the shoot tips from late spring to fall. Below 0oF.
x heckrottii ‘Goldflame’ (‘Gold Flame’) The name is used as both a cultivar name and the common name for the species as a whole—very confusing. The individual at hand is a deciduous vine of moderate growth, eventually 10-15' high. It has broadly oval bluish green leaves about 2" long. Throughout the summer and well into fall, it carries sweetly fragrant 2" blossoms in interrupted whorls at the shoot tips. The flowers have deep rose pink tubes and backing with a contrasting “face”, cream on opening but darkening to gold. Hardy to 0oF or less.
hildebrandiana. Burmese honeysuckle. A giant, tropical-looking vine. It has attractive twisted trunks which can give a striking effect if exposed. The leaves are broadly oval and up to 6" long, with a lacquered surface. Huge, fragrant flowers, produced almost constantly, change in color from cream to gold as they age. Evergreen. 20-25oF.
hispidula var. vacillans. A California native 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, uually 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’. Another California native, 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.
japonica. Japanese honeysuckle is one of those things everyone grows up with (remember smelling the fragrant flowers and sucking their nectar?); however, its rambling habit and tendency to overwhelm nearby shrubs limit its use in these days of smaller yards. It still excels in covering ugly fences and other structures with a lush blanket of foliage and filling the air with sweet perfume. It has dark, satiny leaves up to 3" long and a continuous sprinkling of white blossoms which turn gold as they age. The cultivar ‘Halliana’ is the typical, familiar, green-leaved form. ‘Purpurea’ has leaves strongly tinged with purple, particularly beneath, and purplish backing on the flowers. ‘Aureoreticulata’ is more unusual, with an intricate network of gold on green. All are evergreen except in severe climates. Hardy to 0oF or less.
nitida. Box-leaved honeysuckle. The species has been popular for many years in the East and Northwest but has never quite caught on in California. It is bushy and evergreen, with small, shiny leaves neatly paired along the stems. The flowers are fragrant but small, cream white in color, and half-hidden among the leaves. However, purple berries show well in fall and winter. ‘Maigrun’ is a selection recently brought to California by the Saratoga Horticultural Foundation. It is claimed to grow only about 3’ tall but spreads to at least 8’, making it useful as a tall ground cover. ‘Baggesen’s Gold’ (apparently; it was received as ‘Aurea’) is distinguished by bright yellow new growth, changing gradually to light green. ‘Silver Beauty’ is particularly delicate in texture, with smaller, narrower cream-margined leaves. ‘Red Tip’ has similarly small, narrow leaves, but they are dark green overall, deep red in new growth and red-tinged at the tips and margins when mature. Hardy to about 0oF.
periclymenum serotina ‘Winchester’. Late Dutch honeysuckle. If you forget the botanese and remember it simply as ‘Winchester’, you'll find this a most attractive honeysuckle. It is vining but of moderate growth, possibly reaching 15-20' in time. It has 2" purple tinged leaves. Beginning in mid- to late summer and lasting through fall, it makes lavish displays of fragrant 2" blossoms, cream gradually changing to pale yellow on the face and backed by maroon. Winter deciduous. Its only unfortunate feature is a susceptibility to mildew near the coast. 0oF or less.
sempervirens ‘Leo’. Trumpet honeysuckle. Trumpet honeysuckle is a clambering shrub of moderate growth, with usually evergreen, smooth, dark green leaves, paler below. It has rather dense clusters of orange to crimson 2" blossoms atop a broad, closed pair of bracts which encircles the stem. This recent introduction is notable for its abundance of vivid red flowers. 0oF. or less.
syringantha ‘Grandiflora’. China. A shrubby species, growing around 6' tall, with greater spread. Closely set along the stems are pairs of small bluish green leaves. In summer intensely fragrant, rose pink blossoms are paired all along the younger stems. Probably 0oF.