Honeysuckle, caprifolium Lonicera
Honeysuckle, Lonicera, are climbing plants very appreciated in gardens for the fragrance which exhale their flowers. In the same family, there are shrubs with more or less abundant odorous flowers. As comparison, the Wisteria is a creeper which clings to fences, but there is a shrubby form (rare).
Origin: Europe, Caucasus.
Habitat: the Lonicera can be attacked by aphids during hot and dry summers. To limit this risk, it is necessary to establish it in wetland and cool, in half-shade.
Hardiness: zone 7 (it supports cold until -17 °C or 1 °F).
Height: 3 m tall.
Deciduous foliage. Opposite and simple leaves, obovate and acuminate.
Flowers: of pink-cream colour, in May-June.
Fruit: of orange colour.
Use: nice decorative hedge shrub, shrubbery or borders. Its leaves appear from March, therefore ahead of other shrubs.
Maintenance: prune the incoherent or ancient branches.
Reproduction: by wood cutting, in winter.
Other species:
L. nitida (from Yunnan, cream, odorous white flowers, crimson fruit) and L. pileata have persistent leaves.
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Honeysuckle of Maack, maackii Lonicera
Leaves: simple and opposite, obovate and very acuminate. Marked veins. Of 8 cm long. They become tinged with reddish-brown-red from summer.
Flowers: small, insulated, in trumpet, of white colour. They turn to the yellow after some days.
Fruit: small red berry, in autumn. Berries are used by birds, but are toxic for the man.
Reproduction: by seedling or cutting in summer.
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Lonicera tatarica
Origin: Russia.
Size: 5 m tall.
Habitat: it is drought tolerant.
Leaves: simple and opposite, obovate and very acuminate. Marked veins. Of 12 cm long.
Flowers: grouped, in trumpet, by white, pink or red colour, in June-August.
Fruit: small berries red, grouped, in August-September. |