Decorative varieties of honeysuckle

Decorative honeysuckle is common in many countries of the world. In the countries of the old world it was known already in the Middle Ages.

There are two types of decorative honeysuckle: vines and erect bushes.

A striking European representative of honeysuckle is Honeysuckle. This decorative honeysuckle has a pleasant, strong aroma with delicate shades. Therefore, its second name is fragrant honeysuckle. It grows wild mainly in the Caucasus and Southern Europe. This plant is used in landscaping. It is honey-bearing and grows excellently upward. It is a perennial plant. It begins to bloom in May with beautiful white-pink flowers that look a little like orchids.

The flowering period is approximately three weeks. By autumn, honeysuckle is covered with red-orange fruits, which should not be eaten. Due to its upward growth, honeysuckle Honeysuckle is suitable as a decoration for a hedge, gazebo, or even an entire house. It can grow more than nine meters upward, enveloping frames and structures.

Honeysuckle varieties

Brown's Honeysuckle — a mixture of evergreen and rough. Liana capable of climbing 2.5 meters. Flowering lasts all summer and even early autumn. It has many garden forms and is varied in flower color. The main advantage of this variety is its bright orange flowers. The berries are red, but in the middle zone they do not always ripen. This variety is quite heat-loving. To prevent honeysuckle from disappearing, it is worth covering the shoots with dry leaves during the winter. Unfortunately, the flowers are odorless and the fruits are not edible.

Climbing honeysuckle is one of the most heat-loving species. It appears to be a bush up to 7 meters high. Large flowers are good honey plants. The flowers of this variety have a variety of colors from snow-white to fiery red. Almost all the fruits of this species are edible, only the purple ones are poisonous. The most striking representative of this species is the Serotina variety.

Thalmann's honeysuckle — hybrid of evergreen and caprifolium. This shrub grows 5 meters in height. It blooms in June for about 2 weeks. The flowers have almost no aroma, and in the fall orange berries ripen instead.

Hector's honeysuckle. The branches of this hybrid reach 4 meters in height. It blooms with large purple flowers with an orange-yellow center. Flowering lasts all summer, until the first cold weather. The berries grow in August and ripen until October. The plant is heat-loving, so it is worth planting in dry areas with sufficient sunlight. Honeysuckle is not frost-resistant, so you should definitely cover it for the winter.

Tatarian honeysuckle — quite well-known honeysuckle. This species is often used in city landscaping. Thanks to its unpretentiousness, Tatar honeysuckle can be found along the banks of the Volga, in the territories of Kazakhstan and China. In its natural environment, the bush grows up to 4 meters. Tatar honeysuckle is considered the most frost-resistant species. Flowering lasts about a month from May to mid-June. A bush that has reached the age of three years bears fruit abundantly throughout August. The fruits are red, yellow, orange and rarely white. They have a bitter taste, are somewhat poisonous, and are therefore inedible.

Korolkov's honeysuckle is perhaps the prettiest bush of all. Grows up to three meters. It blooms for three weeks from the end of May with pale pink flowers, which are later replaced by red berries. Resistant to frost, insects and diseases.

Honeysuckle Maak — this giant can grow 5 meters in height and up to 3-4 meters in width. At the beginning of June, the bush is covered with small snow-white flowers and blooms throughout June. At the end of summer, the bush is covered with red inedible berries, which decorate the bush until the cold weather.

Alpine honeysuckle is a small, spherical shrub 1.5 meters tall. Flowering period 25 days. Greenish-yellow flowers appear on the bush. Later they are replaced by red, inedible fruits that closely resemble cherries. It is worth noting excellent shade tolerance and winter hardiness.

Honeysuckle — it is a shrub with a crown up to 3 meters in height, with large dark green leaves that give it a strict and neat appearance. The bush blooms throughout June with numerous red and yellow flowers. In mid-summer, the bush is covered with black glossy berries with purple bracts, which give it an unusual appearance. The berry is inedible.

Common honeysuckle is a medium-sized shrub, known to us all since childhood. Blooms from May for 3 weeks. Flowers are paired, light yellow. By the end of July I begin to bear fruit. The berry is red, poisonous, called wolfberry. The plant is resistant to shade and frost.

Decorative honeysuckle - planting and care

The most favorable planting period is at the end of summer. There is also spring planting. First you need to choose a site for planting. The site should be protected from the wind and with sufficient sunlight. The soil for planting must be loose and drained. Swampy and clayey soils are not suitable for planting. If the soil is poor, then it is necessary to fertilize it with fertilizer. The planting hole should be prepared half a meter wide and 70 cm deep. The bottom should be lined with sand or gravel. Then sprinkle with lime and soil. The bushes are placed 1.5-2 m apart from each other. When planting, you must remember that the root of the seedling must be planted at the soil level, while straightening the roots of the seedling. Then pour plenty of water.

Follow-up care is simple. It is enough to occasionally water abundantly, loosen and remove weeds. Trim weakened and damaged branches. Sanitary and formative pruning must be carried out every year. Ah, anti-aging pruning every two to three years. Old bushes over seven years old are pruned, removing dry and diseased branches, thereby rejuvenating them.

Decorative honeysuckle propagation

There are several methods of reproduction. Main methods:

• cuttings
• branches
• seeds

Cutting is a procedure that should be carried out in late May-early June. By this time, the first green fruits appear on the plant. The shoots that will be used should no longer be elastic by this time. Cuttings are cut from the middle part of the harvested shoots because the tops are not yet ripe. The shoots are cut into pieces of 10-15 cm, from the lower part of the shoot the cut is made immediately below the bud, and in the upper part 1 cm above the bud.

We leave 2-3 pairs of leaves on the cuttings, then remove the bottom pair and shorten the remaining leaves by half. Planting should be done 20 cm apart in the shade. At the planting site, the soil must be fermented with peat and sand. Water the soil thoroughly and plant the cuttings in the soil, covering them with film. Waiting for 3 — 4 weeks until the cuttings take root. Throughout the summer, we make holes in the film every day, enlarging them. At the end of summer, we completely remove the film.

Reproduction by taps - this method is the simplest and least expensive. An incision is made on the bark of a low-lying shoot, after which it is buried. After some time, when the shoot takes root, it is separated from the mother bush for transplantation to the right place. This procedure is carried out in March.

Propagation by seeds - this method is the most labor-intensive and less effective. With this method, varietal characteristics will not be preserved.

The secrets of the highest quality propagation are undoubtedly held by specialists in nurseries. Therefore, when buying seedlings in nurseries, you definitely can’t go wrong.

Reproduction should be carried out from March to April or from June to July. Ideal temperature for germination — 24 C. Seeds are taken from the juiciest berries. They are sown in boxes, containers or pots. Drainage is laid out at the bottom of the container, after which soil with sand and humus is poured. Water the soil moderately and sow the seeds to a depth of 0.5 cm. Fill with soil mixture and sand and cover with film or glass.

Sprouts should appear within 30 days. When shoots begin to appear, the film or glass is removed and the container with the seeds is placed in a well-lit place. By autumn, the seedlings manage to acquire the first pair of leaves and grow 1.5 cm. Only after a year do I transplant the seedlings to a permanent place in the garden at a distance of 5 cm from each other.

Important! With excessive watering, the seeds rot and die.