Lonicera: Honeysuckles and more...

Lonicera is of course well known as an evening-perfumed climbing plant which climbs by twining woody stems. There are many varieties of climbing honeysuckles with a range of flowering seasons from early summer through to autumn. Flower colours range from white and cream (Lonicera Halliana) to yellows (Lonicera x heckrottii 'Goldflame': below left), orange (Lonicera 'Dropmore Scarlet') and bicolours such as 'Rhubarb and Custard' (below right), and leaves may be semi evergreen or deciduous.

In the countryside, many of us may be familiar with the native woodbine scrambling through hedges and climbing small trees in open woodland. An evening walk in early summer will reveal the strong honey fragrance.

But honeysuckles are not all climbers. There are some beautiful winter flowering shrubs in the same plant family. Lonicera 'Winter Beauty' (below)s a deciduous woody shrub reaching up to 2m in height, which flowers in the middle of winter and early spring on leafless branches. The small white flowers release their sweet honeysuckle fragrance into the winter sunshine.

Possibly the most widely planted Lonicera varieties are the shrubby evergreen box-like Lonicera nitida and L. nitida 'Baggeson's Gold'. These can be clipped into shapes like box, though less tidy. I discovered recently that if left untrimmed, the green Lonicera nitida will produce pretty mauve berries during the winter (below). Ideal for a post-Christmas table decoration!