Honeysuckle

Light and exposure

Climbing honeysuckle likes to have its head in the sun and its feet in the cool, exactly like clematis. Plant it against a wall that catches the midday and afternoon sun, on a trellis or pergola, so it enjoys the warmth up top while its base stays shaded by mulch or a low plant nearby. Partial shade suits it well too, and can even give a longer flowering period, less scorched by the full sun of high summer.

Box-leaved honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida), grown as a low hedge, is far less demanding and grows equally well in sun or partial shade. It even copes with shadier spots without complaint, which makes it a practical hedge along a wall that never sees direct sun.

Watering

For the first two years after planting, water honeysuckle regularly, especially in dry weather, while its roots settle in deep. A thick mulch at the base, dead leaves, dried grass clippings or bark, keeps things cool and saves you from watering too often, which is exactly what it likes: cool feet.

Once well rooted, climbing honeysuckle handles dry spells, but soil that dries out completely at the base, combined with a hot summer, clearly encourages powdery mildew on the foliage. Water at the base rather than over the leaves, and remember a good soak during a prolonged heatwave, even on a mature plant.

Soil and repotting

Woodbine grows naturally in the cool, humus rich soil of woodland edges and hedgerows, a leafy ground that never dries out completely. In the garden, recreate that setting with ordinary soil enriched with well rotted compost or leaf mould at planting, and keep it cool with a mulch.

Box-leaved honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida) is far less fussy about soil: it grows just as well in chalky ground as in ordinary garden soil, and tolerates drier conditions once established. It is precisely this tolerance that makes it such a popular low maintenance hedge.

Temperature and humidity

Woodbine is hardy through and through: it grows wild in country hedgerows right across temperate Europe and shrugs off, with no protection at all, frosts of around -20 °C, which makes it a plant for USDA zones 5 to 9. No particular precaution is needed, not even for plants only recently settled in, once they have made it through their first winter.

Box-leaved honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida) is a little less resistant to hard frost, more like zones 7 to 9, and keeps its small evergreen leaves almost all year round. In a particularly cold or windy winter it can lose part of its foliage, without putting the hedge at risk. It bounces back normally as soon as growth restarts.

Pruning and upkeep

Climbing honeysuckle flowers mainly on the previous year’s wood. Prune it just after flowering, in summer, cutting back the shoots that have bloomed and removing dead or tangled wood, never in late winter, or you risk cutting off every future flower bud. Light, regular pruning also stops it running away in all directions and smothering its support.

Box-leaved honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida), by contrast, is clipped like an ordinary hedge, several times a year, ideally in late spring and at the end of summer, to keep a neat shape. Unlike the climber, it does not lose its flowering by being cut hard back, since it is grown chiefly for its foliage.

Pests and diseases

Powdery mildew is the most common problem on climbing honeysuckle, especially during hot, dry summers: a white, floury coating covers the leaves and young shoots, often when the base has gone short of water or coolness. Good mulching and watering at the base during dry spells clearly limit the problem, and badly affected shoots can be cut off and removed from the garden.

Aphids readily settle on the tender young shoots in spring, forming green or black clusters that distort the tips. A firm jet of water or a spray of black soap is usually enough, especially since ladybirds and hoverflies, drawn in by the nectar rich flowers, often take care of it on their own in a garden that is not sprayed.

Propagation

Taking cuttings is the simplest and most reliable way to multiply honeysuckle. In summer, take semi-ripe cuttings ten to fifteen centimetres long, strip the lower leaves and plant them in a light mix of compost and sand, in a shaded, cool spot. Rooting takes several weeks but succeeds easily.

Layering is another option, particularly well suited to climbing honeysuckle: bend a flexible stem down into a shallow trench, leaving the tip poking out, and hold it in place with a stone or a peg. Roots form at the buried point within a few months, and you can then separate the new plant from its parent.

Month-by-month care calendar

Green Hub tips

• Give it a sunny head and shaded feet, exactly as with clematis: a mulch or a low plant at the base of climbing honeysuckle keeps its roots cool.
• Prune climbing honeysuckle right after it flowers, never in late winter: it blooms on the previous year’s wood, and pruning too late sacrifices every flower to come.
• Watch for powdery mildew during hot, dry summers: that white coating on the leaves almost always signals a base that has gone short of water or coolness.
• Do not mix up woodbine (Lonicera periclymenum), a fragrant climber, with box-leaved honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida), grown as a clipped low hedge: they are grown in completely different ways.