This week it’s: A taste of honeysuckle
FOR most of us, the thought of a sweetly fragrant honeysuckle filling our garden on a warm summer’s evening with the most evocative of scents is, well, heavenly! These rambling vines, with curious-looking but highly fragrant flowers, are the epitome of an English cottage-garden plant – not least because the most commonly seen type, Lonicera periclymenum, is a native British plant. But there are many other delightful forms in the interesting lonicera genus. They’re not always climbers: some are more practical and consequently less fashionable.
However, there will always be a place in your garden for a lonicera or two. The summer-flowering types have been in their full glory for many weeks now, so it’s time we took a closer look.
Our native honeysuckle?
WHEN walking along a) in the hedgerow, or a nearby garden, before you see it. The fragrance is at its strongest in the evening, or after a light, misty rain. As with clematis, this plant likes its roots in the shade. Then it will twine through its support and come into flower as it reaches the light. It spreads by two methods:
