Deliciously scented, Lonicera periclymenum 'Scentsation' (Dutch Honeysuckle) is a vigorous, deciduous vine with masses of exceptionally fragrant, creamy-white to yellow flowers. All these will reach 10ft in height. Caroline Gauvin. 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. The flower colour of honeysuckle changes slightly once pollinated. The wild honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, works especially well in a town backyard as it prefers some shade. Grow them up walls and fences, or over a pergola to scent the air near a seating area. To take full advantage of the scent, plant near an entrance, window or doorway. The most familiar Honeysuckle flowers are narrow, flared tubes. We have Lonicera periclymenum ‘Belgica’, or early Dutch honeysuckle, with its raspberry ripple flowers and good fragrance, by the main door leading to the garden. 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. We have a beautiful form with glaucous leaves that flowers in April and suckers well; it came from Keith Steadman, of Wickwar in Gloucestershire. I recommend L. chaetocarpa, a short shrub with hairy grey leaves and large primrose-yellow flowers. 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. English Wild Honeysuckle ( Lonicera periclymenum) in full bloom in the countryside, Oxfordshire, UK. I gave one to Richard Nutt, who showed it to the RHS Floral B Committee; we were disappointed it didn’t get an award. The fragrant flowers are followed by red or yellow berries in autumn. The wild honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, or woodbine, works best if it is in some shade – needing warmth rather than direct sunlight to bring … I also often grow some courgettes in with sweetcorn. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Alas, they never appeared. This year I have planted my courgettes at the centre of my climbing bean wigwams. In contrast, Choisya, is easier to grow, and has the benefit of being evergreen with attractive glossy leaves and it is tolerant of a wide range of conditions. They also have flowers that are delicious dipped in a light batter and deep-fried, either as they are or filled with cream cheese. Fans of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day know the brand's products clean as good as they smell. I love them – but not all of them. Simon Lycett may do... or debate this issue live on our message boards. This is followed by Lonicera syringantha spreading its fragrance far and wide in the spring garden. Or try fragrant jasmine. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, 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. A perfect plant – right around the clock. Best for fragrance Only a fraction of the 200 or so honeysuckles on record compete with our native common honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, for fragrance. Prepare a spot for these in your garden! 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. 15 Fragrant Plants That Will Make Your Garden Smell Amazing. 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. Extracted from Gardening At Longmeadow by Monty Don, BBC Books, £26. Pictured: Early Dutch honeysuckle. I’ve probably grown more species of honeysuckle than of any other genus except, perhaps, roses and primulas. Blooming brilliant! 2 Magnolia. It tolerates drought, erosion, dry soil and clay soil, and can even withstand proximity to black walnuts, unlike most other plants. Charles Quest-Ritson reminisces about the day his bargain purchase of a cyclamen in Woolworths proved to be something rather special. Clematis montana. So plants with a long flowering period are better than a short, spectacular harvest. L. xylostemon is a shrub and the shrubby honeysuckles are wonderful no-nonsense plants for gardens on poor soil such as chalk or Bagshot sand. A vigorous grower, give … The leaves, meanwhile, are eaten by butterfly larvae. For winter flowers and scent, the deciduous winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, is unbeatable. Climbing honeysuckle. The scent of honeysuckle is heavenly and used to our delight in perfumes, soaps … 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. I got very excited about 20 years ago when the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), announced that it had managed to cross the two types of honeysuckle. Lonicera periclymenum 'Scentsation' Plant Patent #16,240 Sku #8636 Simply scentsational, this is possibly the most fragrant Honeysuckle of all! Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. It will grow in sun or shade and performs best in a moist, well-drained soil. 3 Gardenia. The flowers can bloom in gorgeous bright pinks, oranges, yellows or whites, and some varieties have a … An evergreen groundcover plant called Lonicera pileata doesn’t interest me at all. 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. The oval to spade-shaped leaves, which grow up to 8 cm long, are deciduous or evergreen. Most honeysuckles flower on the previous year’s wood so should be pruned – if necessary – immediately after flowering. Published: 22:31 GMT, 26 June 2020 | Updated: 22:31 GMT, 26 June 2020. delavayi (he’s also credited with an autumn-flowering form of our common honeysuckle called Graham Thomas, but he told me he had nothing to do with its introduction and didn’t know where it came from). Some of our honeysuckles came from seed collected in the wild. The Winter Honeysuckle, also called Sweet Breath of Spring, is one of the best fragrant flowering shrubs you can plant in your garden. Honeysuckle is a heat tolerant plant that can grow almost anywhere. Plant it near a path or a seating area to enjoy the scent as you walk by or sit in … It replaced another honeysuckle planted 10 yrs ago which had an abundance of heavenly fragrance. I recommend L. chaetocarpa , a short shrub with hairy grey leaves and large primrose-yellow flowers. Their staggered flowering times mean your pergola will be covered with sweet-scented flowers from May until September. No comments have so far been submitted. Here’s a melancholy postscript. Keith was very keen on shrubby honeysuckles (and willows, too) and it was from him that we acquired L. chrysantha and L. ruprechtiana. “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. These include European honeysuckle ( Lonicera periclymenum ) and winter honeysuckle. It needs sun to perform best, though, and we’re limited in wall space. I did not know that I could buy real honeysuckle until I saw this by accident. My early flowering form called Belgica came from Daphne Hoskins at Kellaways and evergreen L. henryi from John Phillips, Wiltshire’s greatest plantsman. 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. 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. INRA has, however, produced some very good forms of our native honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, of which the most impressive is called Chic&Choc. In all areas, locate plant where its winter fragrance can be enjoyed, such as near an entrance or path or under a bedroom window. Sweet honeysuckle scent, spell-binding jasmine fragrance… Fragrant vines teleport us to richly-scented memories!. Everyone knows winter-flowering L. x purpusii, but few grow intensely sweet-scented L. syringantha, which we had from Chris Thornton. Unfortunately, trumpet honeysuckle doesn’t have much of a scent, but some other non-invasive varieties do have that amazing fragrance. It is a … My latest acquisitions are L. kamtchatka and closely-related L. caerulea var edulis. Many are from central Asia and expect very hot summers and very cold winters. I gave one to Richard Nutt, who showed it to the RHS Floral B Committee; we were disappointed it didn’t get an award. Henceforth, we could look forward to hybrids that carried long, sweet-scented flowers on tough, neat shrubs. Monty explained that the soil should be warm enough in June to sow courgettes directly where they are to grow (file image). Clematis montana is a vigorous climber, so is ideal for covering unsightly walls … 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. Action plan: Nigel Colborn's essential jobs for your garden... Bugs and bees? All the gardening friends I mention above are dead now. I’ve always valued plants that come from friends’ gardens. Monty revisits one of his classic books, Gardening at Longmeadow, in an occasional series. Its flowers are chocolate-coloured on the outside, a striking contrast with the creamy-yellow insides. 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. The plant arrived quickly and was healthy. There are many to choose from including fragrant shrubs. The scent of L. etrusca bade me stop and look for seed one warm summer evening as I motored up the Tiber valley. 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. L. periclymenum (common honeysuckle or woodbine): Prized for its deliciously sweet smelling flowers, which are especially fragrant in the early morning and late evening. 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. 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. Charles Quest-Ritson talks about dahlias, once so unloved, and how they enjoying a surge of popularity. Marianne Purdie. Exceptionally prolific, free flowering with showy, bright yellow blooms followed by bright red berries. The best shrubby honeysuckles don’t grow too big. Resilient and bearing many flowers, climbing plants help cover a facade with green, camouflage a wire fence or decorate a pergola or lattice. © Monty Don 2012. Honeysuckle is wonderfully good for wildlife. 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. 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. There are a lot of silly names for flowers our there – and Charles Quest-Ritson has a chilling warning for those. The botanical reason for this strength of smell is to attract the moths that pollinate it – hence its increased power at night. 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. Manfred Gottschalk. It died. 1 Hyacinth. Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, however, flowers on the same year’s growth, so should be pruned each spring. 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.