Fragrant Winter Honeysuckle Photo Journey
tnangela
16 years ago
Lonicera Fragrantissima, although not invasive in my book, still grows wild in hedge rows and throughout Athens, TN. It is EXTREMELY fragrant and smells up the entire yard from Dec-Apr.
I have a volunteer growing as a companion plant within a crape myrtle. It is a nondescript lush rounded evergreen bush in summer.
This is the same crape myrtle with the wintersuckle bush in winter. The leaves drop and molt when the honeysuckle is in full flower (Feb).
...you can see the green molted leaves on the ground here.
But it's the fragrance of the flowers that draws all the birds and bees. I've always though the honey would be divine.
Birds do eat the flowers (some) but they really relish the small red berries in spring which is how it is propagated.
I've always wanted to try the hybrid Lonicera x purpusii 'Winter Beauty' (= L. purpusii x L. standishii) to see how it compares with the standard species in fragrance.
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