HOW TO GROW CLIMBING HONEYSUCKLES
“For scent and spectacular flowers,” says Anne
An evening stroll to watch bats flit over a nearby lane is scented by native woodbine from the wild hedgerows.
Lonicera periclymenum is a deciduous twiner, whose flowers pump out a rich, fruity perfume that’s strongest from dusk until dawn when pollinating moths are on the wing.
Tubular blooms with flaring petal lobes are held in elegant whorls and are a delicious mix of pink, cream, white and yellow. For our gardens, we usually opt for cultivars with slightly larger, showier blooms, such as early Dutch (L. p ‘Belgica’), pinkish-purple late-Dutch (L. p ‘Serotina’) and classy, pale-gold ‘Graham Thomas’.
The scent and colour of woodbine with a red climbing rose like ‘Etoile de Hollande’ is superb. Other deciduous choices include Italian honeysuckle
(L. caprifolium) whose fragrant, creamy-yellow blooms open against paired grey-green leaves.
Yet aphids seem drawn to it and plants have never thrived for us. We’ve had more luck with the gorgeous American woodbine (L. x americana), whose warm apricot-and-pink blooms emit a rich, clove-like scent.
For evergreen cover, look to Lonicera
japonica of which there are several forms including var. repens with purple-tinged leaves and ‘Halliana’ whose pale blooms age to deep-yellow.
The flowering season is long, in flushes from spring to late summer and scent travels well but beware – plants layer busily and can cover vast areas.
Honeysuckles are happiest where their roots find moist but well-draining, humus-rich soil and the tops twine into sunlight or dappled shade, flowering where they will.
In general, they dislike exposed, baked sites in rubbly soils at the foot of a wall and stressed honeysuckles are more likely to suffer from problems such as mildew and aphids.
Some honeysuckles are grown more for their flower size and colour than scent. A splendid example is deciduous L. ‘Mandarin’ (a hybrid between L.
brownii and L. tragophylla), whose impressive whorls of orange flowers really shine out.