How to Keep Honeysuckle Blooming All Year
Honeysuckle (Lonicera) is an easy vine to grow and its abundant flowers will fill your garden with their scent. Honeysuckle thrives in full sun and is drought tolerant after it is mature. It requires little fertilizer. Most varieties of honeysuckle bloom from spring through summer, but if you grow winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) along with your summer-blooming honeysuckle, you can expect to enjoy honeysuckle’s flowers year-round.
Keeping Honeysuckle Blooming all Year
Grow both your summer blooming honeysuckle and your winter honeysuckle in full sun and well-drained soil to ensure they receive the conditions they need.
Fertilize both summer and winter honeysuckle twice each year at the beginning of spring and again in mid summer with a balanced plant food having an N-P-K ratio of 10-10-10.
Feed both honeysuckles a low nitrogen or “blossom booster” fertilizer when they begin their active growth in spring.
- Honeysuckle (Lonicera) is an easy vine to grow and its abundant flowers will fill your garden with their scent.
Give both honeysuckles sufficient water but allow the soil to dry before you water them again.
Time Of The Year Does Honeysuckle Bloom?
Early-blooming fragrant honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima), a deciduous, bushy shrub, grows from 6 to 10 feet tall and yields aromatic white blossoms from March to April. You can grow it in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 8, but be aware that Virginia and Tennessee consider it invasive. Yellow honeysuckle (Lonicera flava), a vine that climbs from 10 to 20 feet high, yields orange-yellow blossoms from April to May and grows it in USDA zones 5 through 8. It is similar to Japanese honeysuckle but is not considered invasive. Woodbine climbs from 10 to 20 feet high, and you can grow it in USDA zones 5 through 9. North Carolina and Maine consider woodbine to be invasive.
- Give both honeysuckles sufficient water but allow the soil to dry before you water them again.
- Yellow honeysuckle (Lonicera flava), a vine that climbs from 10 to 20 feet high, yields orange-yellow blossoms from April to May and grows it in USDA zones 5 through 8.
Tip
Winter honeysuckle grows to about 10 feet in height. Winter honeysuckle is cold tolerant, from USDA climate zones 4 through 8. After your winter honeysuckle finishes blooming, you can prune it to the shape you want to keep it under control. Provide a trellis or other means of support to keep the rampant vines of summer honeysuckle contained—winter honeysuckle is a more shrub-like plant.
Warning
Avoid planting the vining types of honeysuckle (summer honeysuckle) near small trees or shrubs because it can quickly climb them and cause them to strangle.
References
- The Garden Helper
- Kemper Center/Missouri Botanical Garden
- Green Zone Life
- National Gardening Association: Honeysuckle
- University of Florida Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants: Japanese Honeysuckle
- Missouri Botanical Garden: Lonicera Sempervirens
- Missouri Botanical Garden: Lonicera Fragrantissima
- Missouri Botanical Garden: Lonicera Tatarica “Alba”
- Missouri Botanical Garden: Lonicera Periclymenum “Serotina”
- Missouri Botanical Garden: Lonicera Flava
- Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States: Japanese Honeysuckle
Tips
- Winter honeysuckle grows to about 10 feet in height.
- Winter honeysuckle is cold tolerant, from USDA climate zones 4 through 8.
- After your winter honeysuckle finishes blooming, you can prune it to the shape you want to keep it under control.
- Provide a trellis or other means of support to keep the rampant vines of summer honeysuckle contained---winter honeysuckle is a more shrub-like plant.
Warnings
- Avoid planting the vining types of honeysuckle (summer honeysuckle) near small trees or shrubs because it can quickly climb them and cause them to strangle.
Writer Bio
Barbara Fahs lives on Hawaii island, where she has created Hi'iaka's Healing Herb Garden. Fahs wrote "Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens" and has been a professional writer since 1984. She contributes to "Big Island Weekly," "Ke Ola" magazine and various websites. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at University of California, Santa Barbara and her Master of Arts from San Jose State University.