Garden Layout - Plants - Honeysuckles
There are 3 honeysuckles in the garden, two climbers and the shrub version, Lonicera nitida Baggesen's Gold that is being trained for topiary - I'm shaping it into a Saturn V rocket. It's already 1.8m tall. with a base diameter of 400mm tapering to a point.
The biggest honeysuckle is this one, Lonicera x 'Dropsmore Scarlet', that grows atop the fence in Cormaic's corner, on the patio. It's a strong, vigourous plant, reaching 3m high and a spread of 5m. I cut it back every couple of years, just to keep it tidy, and it never fails to reward me with masses of large flowers from May until the end of summer.	Dropsmore Scarlet
Dropsmore Scarlet	My gardening book tells me that this honeysuckle does best in shade, but I have it in full sun, and the only drawback seems to be its attractiveness to aphids, which I control with either Derris Dust or a dilute soap solution. The flowers are scarlet, as the name implies, with orange throats and paler stamens. The autumnal hips are yellow-orange, although there aren't many, as I tend to deadhead the plant to prolong the flowering period. The new growth is pinkish tinged, and fairly races away with the onset of the warmer weather, easily throwing out 1.2m leaders with abandon, that twine together to reach upwards.
L. periclymenum belgica	There is another climbing, or should that be clambering, honeysuckle that grows on the archway to the Woodland Glade, beside the pond. Lonicera periclymenum 'Belgica' is the more common Dutch Woodbine, and, after waiting for over 3 years, the summer of 1999 saw its first flowers. This honeysuckle is most definitely scented and it's worth climbing over the stile to the Woodland Glad just to immerse oneself in its sensuous pong. It is about 2.4 metres high, with a spread of about 3 metres, and seems to relish the shaded woodland soil at its roots, with its foliage an flowers carried aloft in the dappled sunlight.
And as mentioned above, there is the small-leaved topiary honeysuckle. I'm arranging photo's of this plant. Check back soon, or drop me an email and I'll let you know when this page is completed..

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