Honeysuckle

Nature 3 Minutes

The sweet floral scent of honeysuckle in the air is a sure tell that summer has arrived. The honeysuckle family (Lonicera spp.) includes 180 species of low-maintenance deciduous and evergreen shrubs or climbers with twining stems. Many have naturalized in the United States and some are native to specific regions of the country. If you plan to include this old time favorite in your landscape, be sure to do your homework. Other species of honeysuckle are highly invasive and prohibited in parts of the country. Check with your local cooperative extension to make sure the variety you choose can be planted in your region. The tubular or two-lipped showy honeysuckle flowers are easy for bees and hummingbirds to slip into. After the yellow, red, pink, purple, or white blooms fade, you’ll find lot of juicy berries in the fall. Depending on the variety, honeysuckle grows hardy in USDA zones 4 through 10.

Common honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) is also called European honeysuckle or woodbine. Native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia, it has naturalized in some areas of North America such as Nova Scotia, Ontario, New England and the Pacific Northwest. It is a deciduous shrub with a vine-like habit, growing 10 feet tall and occasionally to 20 feet tall. Leaves are ovate to obovate, about two inches long, appearing on the stems in pairs. Leaves are dark green above and blue-green underneath. Two shades of green appear in the center of the leaf, which has creamy white edges. New leaves emerge in spring and mature as smooth leaves by summer, becoming hot pink in autumn. Buds are pink. Colorful flowers open with ivory interiors and purple exteriors. Two-lipped flowers, each two inches long, bloom steadily in summer and more sporadically in autumn to frost, in three to five whorled terminal spikes that give way to glossy, red berries. Honeysuckle also has strong nocturnally scented flowers attracting large pollinating hawk moths that roam dense bushy and woodland areas.

Common Honeysuckle Care

Tie young vining honeysuckle to a vertical stake to support its growth. Establish the stake before planting to avoid disturbing the soil or roots.

Warning

If you plan to include common honeysuckle in your landscape, be sure to do your homework. Other species of honeysuckle are highly invasive and prohibited in parts of the country. Check with your local extension office to make sure the variety you choose can be planted in your region.

Light

Common honeysuckle prefers dappled sunlight, but it will grow in full sun to part shade. Give the plant a similar environment to its native habitat of scrub and woods. If possible, shade the roots and let the plant climb towards the sun.

Soil

Give common honeysuckle any fertile, rich, well-drained soil.

Water

Water newly planted honeysuckle consistently. Keep the soil evenly moist until the plant shows signs of vigorous growth. Once established, it is quite drought tolerant. Water only if summer droughts last two weeks or more, offering at least one inch of water per week. Adding about two inches of organic mulch around the plant’s base will prevent water from evaporating.

Temperature and Humidity

Honeysuckles usually thrive best in cooler regions with cooler summer climates. Place in part afternoon shade where summers are especially hot.

Fertilizer

If planted in fertile soil, the honeysuckle will grow vigorously without any added fertilizer. If needed, encourage blooming by applying a low-nitrogen fertilizer in spring such as 2-10-10, 0-10-10 or 15-25-10. Too much nitrogen will encourage more growth in the leaves and not enough in the flowers. Such “flushes of foliage growth” could make the plant more susceptible to pests.

Pruning

Once established, most honeysuckle plants will grow vigorously. Prune your common honeysuckle as you would any shrub or vine, removing dead or damaged twigs and branches throughout the season but save any hard pruning for after bloom. Early-blooming vining varieties that bloom on last year’s growth, like common honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), benefit from being cut back by one-third after the blooming period is over. If the vine gets out of control, cut it two feet above the ground.

Other Varieties

  • Early Dutch Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum ‘Belgica’ ) plants bear streaked, raspberry red flowers.
  • A popular woodbine (Lonicera periclymenum ‘Serotina’) produces flowers that are dark red on the outside and yellow and white inside.
  • Berries Jubilee (Lonicera periclymenum ‘Monul’) have yellow flowers, giving fruit to bright red berries.

Propagating Common Honeysuckle

Semi-ripe cuttings can be taken for propagation in summer. Put the cuttings in a well-draining soil and wait for them to take root.

Common Pests and Diseases

While there are rarely any serious insect or disease issues, watch for honeysuckle aphids and scale. Leaf roller, dieback, and blights may also arise. Growing honeysuckle in regions with hot and humid summers could result in powdery mildew and leaf spots, which is why it’s best to grow honeysuckle in cooler regions where it will thrive.

SOURCE: The Spruce

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Published by pat frederick

Published

129 thoughts on “Honeysuckle”

  1. Morning All!
    cloudy and dreary again.
    we are going to go to lunch at Texas Roadhouse today since they weren’t open last Monday when we tried…got a hankering for those awesome biscuits they make!!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Morning, Pat! Bet you can make biscuits just as good as their biscuits! We finally did get a good amount of rain w/o any seriously bad storms…at least, they weren’t bad enough to wake me up! Clear and sunny at the moment – 65 now – but more storms are supposed to move thru today and tomorrow.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Morning Filly!
        i was thinking about posting a recipe for them, but most people these days don’t go to the fuss of making homemade biscuits…lol

        Like

  4. Derek Broes
    @WillingWitness
    Remember when I got attacked when I said my coast guard and navy insiders told me it had imploded days before the media reported it? I do. I also said the media new about it but was using it for the traffic for ad revenue for a failing mainstream system. Don’t ever trust their reporting. Ever! We have the news today.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Liked by 1 person

    1. Good Morning ☀️
      This advertisement grabbed my attention…how extraordinarily offensive?! No mention of our Creator nor family nor a life’s experience…just observation of moments & feelings. See, death is no big deal!
      We learned that from hospital’s government advised covid, murder protocol. Make a better tomorrow by removing yourself today…we are at war with a culture of death with a happy face 🙂🙃 💀

      Liked by 2 people

        1. Hey, if they’ve got the resources, rent a carbon fiber deep submersible! But no 50+ year old white guys involved.

          Liked by 1 person

  10. Feisty Hayseed
    Feisty Hayseed
    June 24, 2023 12:53 am

    GOP lawmakers introduce resolutions to expunge Trump impeachments

    Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Elise Stefanik of New York each authored a resolution that would expunge one of the two impeachments as if such Articles of Impeachment had never passed the full House of Representatives.

    “It’s clear that President Trump‘s impeachment was nothing more than a witch hunt that needs to be expunged from our history. I’m proud to work with Chairwoman Elise Stefanik on our joint resolutions to correct the record and clear President Trump‘s good name,” Ms. Greene said.

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jun/22/elise-stefanik-marjorie-taylor-greene-introduce-re/

    Like

  12. Feisty Hayseed
    June 24, 2023 12:58 am

    Hunter’s Tax deductions

    

    No one should EVER pay taxes again!!! Abolish the IRS!! It’s an absolute SCAM!! pic.twitter.com/rBjfh0iOq5

    — Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) June 23, 2023

    Liked by 1 person

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  24. the headlines are being dominated by russia, russia, russia this morning…coverup for this past week’s revelations? or more biden corruption coming out?

    Liked by 1 person

  30. The gray tabby showed up again this morning. I had taken all the feeders down last night and went out to put them back up – saw him watching from the end of the patio so I put his dish out and went about my business. By the time I was done with the feeders, he had eaten and taken off again. Not the least bit interested at this point in any one-on-one contact….

    Liked by 1 person

  31. they sure do!

    Winston
    Winston
    June 24, 2023 8:36 am

    Appeals Court Halts Proceedings In Nashville Shooter’s Records Case
    JUN 23, 2023

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/appeals-court-halts-proceedings-nashville-shooters-records-case

    The Tennessee Court of Appeals has halted the trial court proceedings in the lawsuits against the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) for denying open records requests in relation to the March 27 Covenant School shooter’s writings.
    2
    Reply
    Winston
    Winston
    June 24, 2023 8:45 am
    Reply to Winston

    They REALLY want to hide that for some reason…

    Liked by 1 person

  32. SO TRUE!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  33. Liked by 1 person

    1. Morning GA!
      this is bizarre. your comment was in pending. in pending, it showed up as GA/FL and your rose avatar. but in my comments section, you show up as “someone” without an avatar. I wonder if this is an avatar issue and not wp?
      I will have to see if anyone has issues with avatars…

      Liked by 1 person

      1. FBJ, my avatar was changed w/o notice. And when I check into various WP sites, I notice this has happened to others also.
        I sometimes check to see who is aboard, and some avatars were new to me…But they belonged to folks whose ‘normal avatars had apparently been changes also.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. thanks piper!
          i’ve been noticing that when i log in, in the mornings, my avatar doesn’t appear till the comment posts…it used to do it as soon as my email was verified before i even posted it

          Like

  42. ADRENOCHROMING OUR CHILDREN: “Millions of innocent children are trafficked every year for sex slavery, rape, torture and Adrenochrome. Elite Pedophile bloodlines who rule our world control the child sex trafficking rings worldwide. Many famous people are involved in this evil.

    What is Adrenochroming of innocent children? When a child knows he’s going to die his body secretes adrenaline. It is the worst horror ever seen. The child is terrorized and screaming, thus increasing the amount of adrenaline that is flowing through their body. They are then killed and the Adrenochrome is collected with a needle and syringe from the base of the back of their neck and spinal column. Once collected, the chemical can be sold on the black market at exorbitant prices.

    There will be no mercy for the Elite Pedophiles rulers of our world and all the people involved in this atrocity and evil perpetrated upon our innocent children. These innocent children are deliberately terrorized for hours and sometimes days to increase the amount of adrenaline produced in their innocent bodies and then they are murdered. Their terrorized blood, Adrenochrome is then sold to Elites and any person around the world willing to pay for it.

    The Sound of Freedom is a movie based on the true story of the horror of millions of innocent children being sex trafficked globally which has already passed the drug trade.

    To the Royal Pedophile bloodlines that control our world (The Committee of 300) children are nothing more than a cow. If we continue to allow our children to be slaughtered, raped and tortured there will be judgments on our world and on our country like we have never seen.

    We need to be fearless and hunt down all these Elite Pedophile Bloodlines who are controlling and operating these torture, rape, Adrenochrome and murder child sex trafficking rings.

    Imagine for a moment the terror and torture these innocent children are going through. What if it was your daughter or son? Tears running down their eyes, their body strapped to a table, they are screaming for help while being tortured and no one is helping them. This is really happening to our children.

    This evil is at the highest level and we must end it completely, we must totally eradicate it from our society. We must send a clear message to the evil in this world. Our children, God’s children are not for sale and we are coming for you.”

    Liked by 2 people

  43. Hmmm….who else has been preaching this for eons????

    “Words Matter–Jenna McCarthy recounts how many words and phrases have been bent and twisted to mean different things ever since COVID came to town.”
    JENNA MCCARTHY
    JUN 24, 2023

    EXCERPT: “When I was growing up, “I’m sorry,” was the requisite response to “you apologize to your sister right this minute” after you yanked out a handful of her hair or accidentally (on purpose) broke her favorite Barbie. There was no genuine remorse or promise of reform required. “I’m sorry” bought you half-hearted forgiveness, got you out of major trouble, or both.

    It was basically BS.

    As a mother and a career linguist, “I’m sorry” wasn’t an option if my daughters injured, outraged, or offended each other — whether carelessly or intentionally. The phrase was trite, I explained; meaningless. Instead, because I believe that words matter deeply, I chose to encourage this alternative: “I feel bad about what I did, and I’ll try not to do it again.” (Without the trying part, it would be almost as platitudinous as “I’m sorry.”)

    It must suck to have a mom who’s a writer.

    Like just about everything else in the world, words have gotten wonky since COVID came to town. Almost out of the gate, we were told to shelter in place, a phrase once employed only in life-or-death, bombs-are-falling, get-under-your-desks emergencies. Suddenly it meant, “You know, you should really probably stay at home unless you’re out of Pantene, your dog swallowed a sock, or someone in your circle needs a margarita to go.”

    https://flccc.substack.com/p/words-matter

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I had to say, I’m sorry that I…(whatever i did) AND that I’ll never do it again.
      I never let my kids or husband or anyone get away with I’m sorry you…(were hurt, felt bad etc)
      nope, you can’t be sorry about me. you have to OWN your part in it.

      Like

  44. “Why Julian Assange Must Be Freed — Speaking in London, on behalf of the jailed Wikileaks founder”
    MATT TAIBBI
    JUN 24, 2023

    EXCERPT: “At Parliament Hill in London Saturday, there was a demonstration on behalf of jailed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Present was the famed rendering of Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden made by sculptor Davide Domino. The statue includes an empty chair for the next whistleblower. I had the honor of standing on that chair to give a short address:

    ‘I have a confession to make. Once. like a lot of journalists, I didn’t like Julian Assange. It wasn’t just that Wikileaks was breaking one huge story after another. He had fab hair. He wore skinny jeans. He even modeled at fashion week! What can I say? I was jealous. We’re in London, so I can quote Shakespeare, can’t I? Beware the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.

    Jealousy, that monster, impairs one’s thinking. It impaired mine. I didn’t have a reason to dislike Assange. So I invented one. I decided I didn’t like the concept of “radical transparency.” I thought: “You can’t just dump all of those secrets on the public. That’s irresponsible!” I was so brainwashed that I forgot, as many people do, that secrets do not belong to governments. That information belongs to us. Governments rule by our consent. If they want to keep secrets, they must have our permission to do so. And they never have the right to keep crimes secret.

    I’m an American. Many of you are from the U.K. In our countries, we’re building skyscrapers and huge new complexes to store our secrets, because we don’t have room to keep them all as is! Why do we have so many secrets? Julian Assange told us why. From an essay he wrote: ‘Authoritarian regimes give rise to forces which oppose them by pushing against the individual and collective will to freedom, truth and self realization. Plans which assist authoritarian rule, once discovered, induce resistance. Hence these plans are concealed by successful authoritarian powers.’

    When governments become authoritarian, they inspire resistance. Techniques must then be developed to repel that resistance. Those techniques must then be concealed. In short: the worse a country is, the more secrets it has. We have a lot of secrets now.”

    (Left, robots tend to the FBI’s Central Records Complex in Winchester, Virginia. Right, the NSA’s “Bumblehive” data center in Utah)

    More: https://www.racket.news/p/why-julian-assange-must-be-freed

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Rest of article: “Julian Assange became famous as we were creating a vast new government-within-a-government, a system of secret prisons, extraordinary rendition, mass surveillance, and drone assassination. Many of these things we know about only because of Wikileaks. Ostensibly, all this secrecy was needed to fight foreign terrorism.

      The brutal irony now is the architects of that system no longer feel the need to hide their dirty tactics. My government, openly, wants to put this man in jail for 175 years, mostly for violations of the Espionage Act. These include crimes like “conspiracy to receive national defense information,” or “obtaining national defense information.”

      What is “national defense information?” The answer is what makes this law so dangerous. It’s whatever they say it is. It’s any information they don’t want to get out. It doesn’t even have to be classified.

      What is conspiracy to obtain such information? We have a word for that. It’s called journalism.

      My government wants to put Julian Assange in jail for 175 years for practicing journalism. The government of this country, the U.K., is going to allow it to happen.

      If they did this to Andrei Sakharov, or Nelson Mandela, every human rights organization in the world would be denouncing this as an intolerable outrage. Every NGO would be lining up to lend support. Every journalist would be penning editorials demanding his release.

      But because our own governments are doing it, we get silence.

      If you’re okay with this happening to one Julian Assange, you’d better be okay with it happening to many others. That’s why this moment is so important. If Assange is successfully extradited and convicted, it will take about ten minutes for it to happen again. From there this will become a common occurrence. There will be no demonstrations in parks, no more news stories. This will become a normal part of our lives.

      Don’t let that happen. Free Julian Assange.”

      Liked by 2 people

  47. NF–Spacing edited – Tweet from Stephen Miller:

    “As someone who was there from the beginning, today it is my profound honor to formally endorse Donald J. Trump for re-election as President of the United States! Read my full statement below.

    “It is my enormous privilege to endorse President Donald Trump for re-election. Joining the first Trump campaign in its early days, I saw then what the whole world has learned since: that President Trump is a once-in-a-lifetime transformative leader who possesses the rare combination of skills, insights, wisdom and otherworldly determination necessary to save America from those who would destroy her.

    He left a life of comfort and wealth to endure abuse and persecution few can imagine. At so many points, at so many times, he could have walked away, spared himself, grabbed a golden parachute, but instead he sacrificed all he has built so that we might be free again.

    Doing more to change our politics than any leader since Andrew Jackson, Trump inherited a Republican Party that was globalist, donor-centric and unabashedly neoconservative — destined for a generations of nominees and party figureheads in the mold of George Bush and his protégés — a party whose zeal for unrestricted free trade, unceasing foreign wars and unending open immigration threatened to sink the whole American experiment. Trump saved the party from itself — and thus the hopes of America, by creating a political party vehicle for nationalist populism and America First patriotism.

    He delivered peace to a world at war. Prosperity to a country in decline. And he sealed the border in the face of domestic legal and political and international opposition on a scale that defies description.

    Whereas presidents of both parties before him laid down the welcome mat for global mass migration he banned travel from unsafe nations; ended refugee pipelines; suspended whole immigration programs; marshaled state power to stop visa overstays; restored consular affairs to a mission in defense of America not in support of foreign nationals; rewrote the foreign affairs manual to protect our interests; issued arguably the most important domestic regulation in history (public charge); and instituted the most comprehensive sovereign deportation strategy ever developed to end catch-and-release both at and between our ports, and across the whole US, to repatriate nationals to scores of countries across the globe — defeating a deep state and a leftwing judicial state that was hellbent on thwarting his each and every move.

    He achieved energy independence. Successfully implemented a more ambitious deregulatory agenda than any President in modern history. Restored tariffs to the fore of our economic arsenal, reviving the patriotic mercantilism that built the American economic powerhouse.

    He changed the entire paradigm on China. He changed the entire paradigm in the Middle East. He made millions of Americans felt seen and heard for the first time in their lives. And he did it all while battling a deep state coup.

    Now, the same forces who tried to frame him, who tried to remove him, who broke every rule in the book to try to stop him, are trying to jail him. Why? Because they know if he gets back into the Oval Office he will stop them. Stop them from cheating and bleeding and ransacking our country. Stop them from taking your voice and your vote. Stop them from illicitly spying and censoring and dragging us into military conflicts that yield only pain and hardship.

    So let us choose peace. Let us stand with the man who has always stood with us. Let us stand with President Trump, more now than ever.”

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Oh, good – glad you had a good meal and weren’t disappointed….I HATE when that happens! You look forward to a special place, only to find out that favorite item is off the menu now! LOL

      Liked by 1 person

  49. I thought this was REALLY odd, not only because of the subject, but because the remainder is blurred out…hmmm…now I know why!!! Yes, this is true – she was sentenced to 3 months in prison and a fine but it isn’t what it appears to be at all. She made THAT claim after having had consensual sex with an illegal African migrant….personally, I’d have put her in prison and thrown away the key for her stupidity but…unfortunately, you can’t punish people legally for being stupid!!! THIS is how people get so horribly misled!

    Liked by 1 person

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