Honeysuckle is a super, easy-to-grow ornamental vine for our area. The 'Gold Flame' variety has salmon pink blooms with a yellow throat. Also available in the garden centers right now is the 'Coral' variety which has bright orange blooms (I always thought the names on these two were the opposite of what they should be!) and 'Halls' honeysuckle which has fragrant white and yellow blooms. 'Halls' honeysuckle is probably the one you remember "tasting" when you were a kid!
Close-up of a 'Gold Flame' honeysuckle bloom.
All of the honeysuckle varieties can be grown as a ground cover or on a trellis or topiary. It will twine up just about anything, but it won't stick to your fence or wall. Once estabilished, honeysuckle doesn't need much water, but it does require vigilant pruning as it can rapidlly overtake an area of your landscape. For that reason, I prefer to grow mine on a free-standing iron topiary my mom gave me for my birthday a few years ago.
Topiared honeysuckle covered with blooms.
Honeysuckle prefers full sun but is tolerant of some shade. It blooms most heavily in early spring and will continue to bloom sporadically through the summer.
A word of warning: I did manage to kill some of mine several years ago by overwatering it. My nursery customers at the time were amazed by this because killing honeysuckle is hard to do! If overwatered, it can develop powdery mildew (it looks like white baby powder on the leaves), and if you still keep watering it (which I did!), it will die. Other than that, you'll have an easy time with it and enjoy the blooms (and fragrance of the 'Halls') for most of the growing season.
When should I cut radically like you all away? Mine is dry :(. Maybe I still can safe her. :) thanks!
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