British Native Trees
and Shrubs

Honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum (Caprifoliaceae)

The beautiful, deliciously fragrant cream and yellow trumpets of honeysuckle are amongst the great delights of summer as they perfume the evening air. This vigorous, deciduous climber shows its promise early with green buds emerging in late winter before the spring flowers and full leaves by the beginning of April. Its woody stems twine clockwise up neighbouring plants and can reach a height of 6 m in trees, hence its other common name, woodbine. The opposite pairs of ovate to elliptic leaves, 3-7 cm long, are dark-green above and bluish-green below, smooth-edged and usually pointed. Whorls of tubular flowers appear at the end of the stems mainly in June and July, although some continue through to September when there can be a second flowering. Each flower is 2.5 cm long and 4.5 cm across, with a widely-spread two-lipped mouth with protruding stamens, creamy-white or yellow in colour and often tinged with red or purple. Flowers change from white to yellow after pollination. The round, red berries appear in clusters, each fruit containing up to eight oblong seeds.

Honeysuckle is found in hedgerows, woodlands, scrub, rocks and cliffs on a wide range of soils throughout England, up to 500 m in Teesdale.

This fragrant climber can be incorporated into a hedge, trained on trelliswork, a pergola or a free-standing support such as an obelisk. It can be grown over an old shrub or tree trunk or it will flourish in a reasonably large container near the house where its pervasive evening scent can be enjoyed. It likes full sun but will grow in semi-shade and it tolerates most garden soils as long as they are not too dry or too wet. In good open sites it can be vigorous and needs pruning twice a year to keep it within bounds, once after flowering and again in winter. It is more restrained when growing in hedges and through trees. Honeysuckle should not be planted near saplings or other young plants because it will bind tightly to them and damage them before they are established. It can be easily propagated by taking semi-hard cuttings in late summer and potting them in compost with a cane support before setting out after a year. Hardwood cuttings can be put straight into the ground. It can also be raised from seed collected from ripe berries and stratified before sowing in boxes in late winter then potting up the seedlings as for cuttings.

Both its scent and the nectar at the bottom of the flower tube attract pollinating moths, especially the large elephant hawk moth, and the leaves are food for the larvae of white admiral and marsh fritillary butterflies. The red berries or seeds from shrivelled fruits are relished by blackcaps, blackbirds, robins, thrushes, blue tits and marsh tits, while the dense tangled stems make excellent nest sites.

Page last updated - January 10, 2002  

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