The wild honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, or woodbine, works best if it is in some shade – needing warmth rather than direct sunlight to bring … Smaller flowers belonging to unhybridised species are likely to contain far more pollen than huge show blooms on plants that are the result of elaborate breeding. Mine is in almost permanent rather dry shade so the chances of it flowering are slim, as the combination of too much shade with too little water will always inhibit flowering, but the plant survives this mistreatment with a degree of robustness. The scent of honeysuckle is heavenly and used to our delight in perfumes, soaps … The best varieties of Honeysuckle to grow for scent are Lonicera japonica 'Halliana' AGM image left, evergreen or semi-evergreen and a vigorous climber growing to around 10 meters. Deciduous or evergreen, climbing honeysuckles (Lonicera) have thin, flexible stems that twine around their supports. Resilient and bearing many flowers, climbing plants help cover a facade with green, camouflage a wire fence or decorate a pergola or lattice. The late Dutch honeysuckle, L. periclymenum ‘Serotina’, flowers with a deeper purple splash to replace the early version’s pink, and smells fine too, but later. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, The seed of L. implexa hailed from my uncle’s garden in Majorca and L. xylostemon from Italy’s Gran Paradiso park (with the consent of a warden, I hasten to add). Lonicera periclymenum 'Scentsation' Plant Patent #16,240 Sku #8636 Simply scentsational, this is possibly the most fragrant Honeysuckle of all! The leaves, meanwhile, are eaten by butterfly larvae. It replaced another honeysuckle planted 10 yrs ago which had an abundance of heavenly fragrance. © Santiago Urquijo. There’s a manky cultivar called Baggeson’s Gold that’s even uglier, but that’s only two duds among some 180 species that all make excellent garden plants. I would recommend planting two varieties – early Dutch honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum ‘Belgica’) and late Dutch honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum ‘Serotina’). For years I have been trying to find candles or soaps with an authentic honeysuckle scent, because it is my favorite fragrance. It needs sun to perform best, though, and we’re limited in wall space. Note it really is vigorous and in the right place will make a very large climber so best to make sure you have space for it. It also makes a nice potted plant for areas where you will enjoy the lemony fragrance most. Botanical name: Jasminum floridum, J. humile (Italian jasmine) J. laurifolium nitidum … Produced in succession from early to late summer, the blossoms give way to small, bright red berries. If it's allowed to flower because "people like the scent" it then produces seed, birds will eat the seed and deposit it in wooded areas, along fence rows, etc., extensively spreading the vine. English Wild Honeysuckle ( Lonicera periclymenum) in full bloom in the countryside, Oxfordshire, UK. Bees like to collect pollen close to the hive and will keep returning to a source of nectar for as long as it is available. Botanical name: Lonicera. The main thing to avoid is letting it dry out too much. No less desirable is L. involucrata, a present from Bill Baker; its yellow flowers are set off by crimson bracts. My latest acquisitions are L. kamtchatka and closely-related L. caerulea var edulis. “The scented honeysuckle year starts with Lonicera x pupusii, the best of the winter flowerers, which produces strongly scented white flowers on bare winter stems. Blooming brilliant! My grandmother gave me L. japonica Aureoreticulata – she loved the way the leaf-veins are tricked out in gold – and the head gardener at the Hanbury Botanical Gardens at La Mortola pressed me to take the species with the largest flowers, L. hildebrandiana, which grows to 33ft in sub-tropical Assam, but is too tender to grow outside in England. INRA has, however, produced some very good forms of our native honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, of which the most impressive is called Chic&Choc. Extracted from Gardening At Longmeadow by Monty Don, BBC Books, £26. All these will reach 10ft in height. Natalia Ganelin. I’ve probably grown more species of honeysuckle than of any other genus except, perhaps, roses and primulas. Some of our honeysuckles came from seed collected in the wild. Clematis montana. Scented Honeysuckle found in: Honeysuckle 'Scentsation', Honeysuckle 'Serotina', Honeysuckle 'Belgica', Honeysuckle 'Hall's Prolific', Honeysuckle .. 1 Hyacinth. Charles Quest-Ritson talks about dahlias, once so unloved, and how they enjoying a surge of popularity. This should not interfere with the beans as long as I keep each wigwam well watered. However, I rather fancy twining it up an apple tree in the orchard. I gave one to Richard Nutt, who showed it to the RHS Floral B Committee; we were disappointed it didn’t get an award. 3 Gardenia. 15 Fragrant Plants That Will Make Your Garden Smell Amazing. There is so much I would like to give them. With plant-derived ingredients and essential oils at the base of their formulas, their home and body products are both powerful and pleasantly-scented (think mint and lavender). They get a bit confused by our mild winters and I find that L. korolkowii is the first of all my garden shrubs to come into leaf. It will grow in sun or shade and performs best in a moist, well-drained soil. Alas, they never appeared. I recommend L. chaetocarpa, a short shrub with hairy grey leaves and large primrose-yellow flowers. The scent of L. etrusca bade me stop and look for seed one warm summer evening as I motored up the Tiber valley. Action plan: Nigel Colborn's essential jobs for your garden... Bugs and bees? Sweet honeysuckle scent, spell-binding jasmine fragrance… Fragrant vines teleport us to richly-scented memories!. The same is true of L. nitida, also evergreen, but most often used for hedging; it needs no fewer than three cuts a year to keep it tidy. Monty explained that the soil should be warm enough in June to sow courgettes directly where they are to grow (file image). I did not know that I could buy real honeysuckle until I saw this by accident. The best shrubby honeysuckles don’t grow too big. Prepare a spot for these in your garden! To keep a honeysuckle in tiptop condition you must provide the roots with rich soil and plenty of shade and the flowers with some sunshine, preferably in the evening. Best for fragrance Only a fraction of the 200 or so honeysuckles on record compete with our native common honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, for fragrance. L. periclymenum (common honeysuckle or woodbine): Prized for its deliciously sweet smelling flowers, which are especially fragrant in the early morning and late evening. This year I have planted my courgettes at the centre of my climbing bean wigwams. Yet it never becomes overpowering or crude in the way jasmine or even lilies can.Honeysuckle is fruity, warm and gently erotic. 4 Wisteria. The honeysuckle plant is also tolerant of different soil types, though it helps to grow the vine in well-draining soil amended with organic matter. My husband and I planted it … Coral honeysuckle is one of the best South Florida plants for attracting hummingbirds. It tolerates drought, erosion, dry soil and clay soil, and can even withstand proximity to black walnuts, unlike most other plants. Bought the Scentsation honeysuckle at a garden center...planted per directions, about 6 wks ago. 2 Magnolia. Manfred Gottschalk. The plant arrived quickly and was healthy. This is perhaps the best honeysuckle for attracting hummingbirds. Nearly all honeysuckles will grow in shade, but if the flowers can have sunshine for half the day they’ll be more floriferous and the fragrance will be noticeably stronger. If you don't get hummingbirds right away, be patient. No comments have so far been submitted. Graham Thomas presented me with super-floriferous L. similis var. Their gardens and their memories live on in mine, but where are the young, acquisitive plantsmen that I was once? Cobaea scandens, Annual, Perennial in zones 9 to 11. L. japonica ‘Halliana’ is another I want to add to this garden; it is deciduous but hangs onto its leaves through all but the coldest winters and flowers right through midsummer. I also often grow some courgettes in with sweetcorn. More robust than pumpkins and squashes – which in a cold summer will refuse to grow – courgettes will reliably produce delicious fruits within the full range of our unpredictable British summers. Deliciously scented, Lonicera periclymenum 'Scentsation' (Dutch Honeysuckle) is a vigorous, deciduous vine with masses of exceptionally fragrant, creamy-white to yellow flowers. For winter flowers and scent, the deciduous winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, is unbeatable. Grow them up walls and fences, or over a pergola to scent the air near a seating area. 5 Freesia. One of my favourite joys of this midsummer season is the range of scents, and my favourite of all is honeysuckle. The oval to spade-shaped leaves, which grow up to 8 cm long, are deciduous or evergreen. Bees take over pollinating duties from moths during the day, and then later the flowers bear round, red fruits that are important food for songbirds, while the tangle of stems makes excellent cover for nests. Not all are scented so it is good to know which ones are. The best shrubby honeysuckles don’t grow too big. Here’s a melancholy postscript. The flower colour of honeysuckle changes slightly once pollinated. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Alas, this species, along with all the American honeysuckles, has no fragrance. Coral honeysuckle is a great honeysuckle as it is a huge attractant to hummingbirds and it's also a very beautiful, flowering vine. The most familiar Honeysuckle flowers are narrow, flared tubes. Bees also love flowering trees and legumes – such as peas, beans, clover and sweet peas – as well as dandelions, blackberries, asters, ivy and willow. With a passel of common names like Carolina allspice, sweetshrub, strawberry shrub, pineapple shrub, and sweet Betsy,… In all areas, locate plant where its winter fragrance can be enjoyed, such as near an entrance or path or under a bedroom window. Harvest the fruit as soon as they are big enough to handle. Charles Quest-Ritson muses on daphnes, the lovely winter flowers which seemingly ought to be a lot hardier than they are. Honeysuckles can be grown as ground cover in suitable areas but most do best with some type of support, either along a fence or on a trellis. An evergreen groundcover plant called Lonicera pileata doesn’t interest me at all. Honey bees like saucer-shaped flowers that are easier for their short tongues to dip into, such as mallow (far right, pink), lesser scabious, cornflower (right), wild clary (far right, blue), hollyhocks and evening primrose. The wild honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, or woodbine, works best if it is in some shade – needing warmth rather than direct sunlight to bring out the best of its scent – and a west-facing urban wall is ideal. All species of honeysuckle plant fall into two categories: 1) arching shrubs and 2) twinning bines, with the large majority being climbing plants that make for attractive honeysuckle vines. Once growing strongly they are pretty hardy and healthy with only grey, powdery mildew likely to be a problem – this is always a result of the roots becoming too dry. Climbing honeysuckle. With dark green to blue-green leaves and sweet-smelling flowers, they grow as either far-reaching vines or arching shrubs. The shrub Daphne is known for is lovely perfume, but it is not 100% reliable or easy to grow. Honeysuckle is a sweet treat that many of us remember from our childhoods.