Bright red flowers, rich green leaves and easily manageable vines—just three of the reasons this indigenous beauty belongs in your landscape.
Photo by L.A. Jackson
Mention the word “honeysuckle,” and visions of delightful, sweetly scented, pale blooms dripping from vigorous vines on a summer afternoon pop up in many a gardener’s head. But to others, bouts with a rampant creeper that threatened to engulf the house, the car, even the family cat if he didn’t move fast enough are also real memories.
The botanical beast that creates such a conundrum of conscience with gardeners is Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), an oriental introduction to southern gardens in the early 1800s that can grow to over 30 feet long and seed about with impunity.
There is a way to enjoy honeysuckle without fear of your landscape being swallowed by its vines. It is simply a matter of substituting the Japanese import with a beauty made in America: coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), which is native to the Southeast. This indigenous vine can stretch to 20 feet in length, but it is less seedy than Japanese honeysuckle, meaning less weedy.
As advertised, coral honeysuckle flowers are a vibrant red, and they dangle in masses off vines wrapped with pleasantly contrasting, rich green leaves. Unfortunately, unlike Japanese honeysuckle, these bright blooms fail in the scent department with little or no fragrance detected. However, while a no-win for the nose, the crimson waves they can create from late spring into the summer are certified eye candy. As a bonus, the tube-shaped blossoms are butterfly, bee and hummingbird magnets.
True to its natural native toughness, coral honeysuckle is a no-fuss plant for your garden. About the only requirements to keeping it happy are well-drained, organically enriched soil and full sun. This honeysuckle will tolerate less sunlight, but its flower show will diminish accordingly. Naturally, it will need something to climb on, and this semi-evergreen vine could be just the plant to clothe a naked trellis or doll up an ugly fence.
Although coral honeysuckle grows in the wilds of our state, yanking it from the woods is not an eco-friendly option. If a gardening buddy happens to have one, softwood cuttings taken in the summer can be easily rooted. And, of course, there are commercial choices, including local nurseries that have decent inventories of native plants, and online regional sources such as South Carolina’s Park Seed (parkseed.com) and Wilson Bros Gardens (wilsonbrosgardens.com) in Georgia, which also feature tempting variations such as the heavy-flowering Major Wheeler and yellow-blooming John Clayton.
March in the garden
• With the garden waking up from its winter slumber, it is time to fertilize established shrubs, trees, perennials and roses for better displays this spring and summer. Complete fertilizers such as 8-8-8 and 10-10-10 will do, but in order to stretch out available nutrients over the l-o-o-n-g growing season, applying a time-release fertilizer is a better way to feed your plants’ needs.
• Want years and years of dependable service from your lawn mower? One of the most important maintenance chores you can do to keep your grass muncher running longer is to change the engine’s oil at least every two years. For smoother operation—and easier starts—also replace the spark plug while changing the oil.
Tip of the month
Daffodils will perform better in the garden if their energy-absorbing leaves are allowed to fade from green to brown before they are pruned to the ground. Also, as the flowers wane, it’s not a bad idea to snip them off their stems to prevent seed formation, which diverts energy away from the underground bulbs as they are storing up internal oomph for next spring’s flower show. Still curious to see what the seeds will produce bloom-wise? Get comfy and settle in for a long wait—it can take seed-grown daffodils five years or more to mature enough to produce flowers.
L.A. Jackson is the former editor of Carolina Gardener magazine. Contact him at lajackson1@gmail.com.