What honeysuckle is and where it comes from
Honeysuckle is a genus of 159 species spread across the Northern Hemisphere, and it holds climbing vines and freestanding shrubs, some evergreen and some deciduous. The leaves stay recognizable across all of it: simple, set in opposite pairs along the stem, and smooth along the edge. The flowers sit just above a pair of leaves joined at the base, and they are followed by red or black berries that fruit-eating birds strip. The family is Caprifoliaceae, the honeysuckle family. The genus name honors Adam Lonicer, a sixteenth-century German herbalist and botanist. The genus has no single habit and no single reputation: some species climb a porch post, others sit as rounded shrubs in a hedgerow, and the line between a plant worth buying and a plant on a state weed list runs between species that look much alike.
The division that matters to an American gardener is between the honeysuckles that grew here and the ones that arrived. Coral honeysuckle, also sold as trumpet honeysuckle, is a twining perennial vine native to the eastern United States, and its species name is the Latin word for evergreen, which it earns in the warm winters of the Deep South by holding its leaves. European honeysuckle, the woodbine of English hedgerows, is a deciduous twining vine from Europe and North Africa, and its species name comes from a Greek word meaning to entwine around. Japanese honeysuckle came from Japan, Korea, Manchuria and China, naturalized across the United States, and is now treated as highly invasive. NC State Extension states the split without hedging: Japanese honeysuckle and Amur honeysuckle are dreadful weeds in North America that should not be planted on purpose, while other species are well-behaved garden ornamentals.
The common names cause trouble at the garden center. Plants sold as bush honeysuckle in the genus Diervilla are not Lonicera at all, though the two share a family, and those Diervilla species are the native ones: northern bush honeysuckle grows wild in Maryland, and southern bush honeysuckle belongs to the southeastern states. Several of the best garden vines mix continents. Goldflame honeysuckle came from an artificial cross of two European species with the North American coral honeysuckle. Winter honeysuckle, the shrub grown for scent in the coldest weeks of the year, is native to eastern and southern China, was brought to the United States in the late 1800s as an ornamental and for wildlife food and shelter, and has naturalized in many states since. The plants make the sorting harder. Because so many small mammals and birds scatter the berries of every species, native and invasive honeysuckles turn up growing side by side and tangled into each other, which is how one thicket can hold a plant worth keeping and a plant worth cutting on the same fence line.
When honeysuckle blooms and which ones actually smell
Bloom time depends on which honeysuckle you have, and between them the genus covers most of the calendar. Winter honeysuckle opens first: small creamy white flowers tinged with pink or red, tubular and two-lipped, come out on bare branches from December to March in mild climates, before the leaves appear. Coral honeysuckle follows, carrying narrow trumpets 1.5 to 2 inches long, scarlet to orange-red outside and yellowish within, with four upper lobes and one lower one, in whorled clusters at the stem ends. Its season is given two ways, March to July and May to June. European honeysuckle splits the same way, blooming in spring with sporadic summer flowers by one account and from late June into October by the other. Japanese honeysuckle carries paired white flowers 1 to 1.5 inches across that fade to creamy yellow, from late spring through most of summer and sometimes into fall.
Scent is where the genus disappoints buyers. Coral honeysuckle, the red-flowered native, has no fragrance at all: its flowers are shaped for hummingbirds, which pollinate the species. The heavy evening smell people shop for belongs to the Eurasian vines. The fragrance of European honeysuckle is strongest after dark, and moths are its native pollinators, so a fence that smells of nothing at noon can be overwhelming after supper. Its flowers open white or ivory and age to a deeper yellow, and some clones open from pink or purplish buds, so a single cluster carries several shades at once. Winter honeysuckle is the one to think twice about. Its lemon-scented flowers are the only argument for a shrub that is otherwise a dense mass of branches with little to look at, and that shrub invades woodlands, fields and disturbed sites and forms dense thickets, which is why the sourced advice is to plant a US-native shrub in its place. Goldflame honeysuckle sits between the two camps, with 1.5-inch tubular flowers that are pinkish-purple outside and open to show a yellow corolla, weakly fragrant at best, and it rarely sets fruit. Its season is put at spring to fall and at spring to early summer, so a buyer who wants scent should smell the plant at the nursery before paying for it.
Native or invasive: how to tell what you have
Cut a woody stem and look at the middle before anything else: the stems of every invasive honeysuckle are hollow at the center, and native honeysuckle stems are solid. Leaf edges, flowers and fruit settle the cases the stem leaves open.
What to do about an invasive honeysuckle
Whether your honeysuckle is a problem depends on the species and on the state you garden in. Maryland alone has 10 honeysuckle species growing in it, most of them non-native and invasive, brought over in the 1800s for ornament, wildlife cover and erosion control. Pennsylvania has three native honeysuckles, the bush, American fly and mountain fly species, and in Illinois the common invaders are Tatarian, Amur and Morrow honeysuckle. Vermont quarantines the shrub honeysuckles as Class B noxious weeds. Amur honeysuckle is a prohibited species under Maryland law, while Japanese honeysuckle is not banned there and sits on the state's list of species prioritized for assessment. Winter honeysuckle, still sold for its scent, is invasive in many states and particularly in the forests of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Even a garden hybrid can land on a list: Illinois counts Goldflame honeysuckle as invasive, and no other state has reported it that way.
The damage runs deeper than a messy thicket. Bush honeysuckle builds an understory thick enough to limit the sunlight reaching the seedlings of native plants, competes with them for soil moisture and nutrients, and spreads from the roots on top of that. Large trees in invaded forests are stunted by as much as 40 percent. A climbing Japanese honeysuckle smothers wildflowers at ground level, shades the canopy from above, and can strangle a young tree as the stems wrapped around its trunk thicken. It comes back on numbers: shrub honeysuckle plants mature at 3 to 5 years of age, each plant produces thousands of berries, each fruit holds 2 to 6 seeds, and those seeds stay viable for 3 to 5 years. Birds do eat the fruit, but it is poorer in fats and nutrients than native fruit, so it does not carry them through a long migration flight. Higher lone star tick populations have been found where Amur honeysuckle grows, and chemicals in its tissues hold back the growth of other plants.
Removal starts with finding the plants. Bush honeysuckle is the first shrub to leaf out in spring and the last to drop its leaves in fall, so late fall and early spring are when a green thicket stands out against bare woods. Young plants are shallow-rooted and pull up easily: pull the shrub, shake the soil off, and hang the roots in the air so they dry out, and the plant dies without any chemical. Cutting alone backfires, because a saw or loppers triggers vigorous regrowth and usually fails unless it is repeated several times a year for many years. The standard treatment pairs the cut with herbicide on the stump, and Missouri's conservation department directs a 20 percent glyphosate solution applied immediately after cutting; other agencies set the strength anywhere from 18 to 21 percent up to 25 to 50 percent. Expect the work to be physical, since the wood dulls power tool blades, and expect to replant, since natives may have to go in afterward to keep the ground from being taken again. The fragrant substitutes on record are summersweet, sweetbay magnolia and Virgin's-bower, a native clematis, and for a vine on the same fence the native alternatives are crossvine, Carolina jessamine, coral honeysuckle, Virginia creeper and passionflower.
Honeysuckle varieties worth knowing apart
Named selections are where this genus behaves itself. The coral selections are all forms of the native vine, the European selections are the fragrant ones, and color runs from scarlet through pink to the clear yellow flowers of 'Flava' and 'John Clayton'.
Light
Honeysuckle flowers best in full sun, which for this genus means six or more hours of direct light a day, with partial shade counted as two to six. The woodland species want that light divided: European honeysuckle keeps its roots in the shade and sends its shoots climbing toward the sun, which is how it grows in the woods, hedgerows and scrub it came from. Mulch or a low planting over the root zone copies the arrangement, holding the base cool while the top of the plant runs up into open sun. The shrubby species read the same way, and winter honeysuckle grows readily in sun or partial shade while performing best on well-drained soil in full sun.
Soil, water, and what to grow it on
Honeysuckle wants ordinary soil with medium moisture and drainage that works, and it does best where that soil is humus-rich and organically rich. Coral honeysuckle takes acid ground below pH 6.0 and neutral ground from 6.0 to 8.0, in clay, in loam, or in soil high in organic matter, which covers most American backyards. European honeysuckle tolerates both acid and alkaline soil, while Goldflame honeysuckle cannot handle alkaline ground and wants good air circulation around it to keep downy mildew off. Winter honeysuckle transplants readily and puts up with a range of pH and with poor soil, though not with wet ground. Water follows one pattern across the genus: most species prefer moist conditions, many turn drought-tolerant once they are established, and most are adaptable about the soil they are given. That makes the first season the one that matters, when regular water builds the roots that carry the plant through later dry spells.
Honeysuckle climbs by twining, which means the stem itself wraps its support; there are no tendrils, sticky pads or aerial roots to grip a flat wall. It needs a structure, and it repays a trellis, an arbor or a fence, anything narrow enough for a stem to circle, the same way morning glories take a string. Given nothing to climb, the vine sprawls and serves as a ground cover. Allow 3 to 6 feet of planting space. Match the plant to the job: European honeysuckle twines through and above a fence and makes excellent screening, while Goldflame is usually not dense enough to form a complete screen and does better on an arbor, a fence, or a light or mailbox pole. The shrubby species take shaping and hold it, which is why they turn up in borders, as foundation plantings, and as single specimens.
Pruning honeysuckle without losing the flowers
Prune honeysuckle immediately after it flowers. Take out dead or diseased branches in the same pass, which is the one job worth repeating every year. The sources disagree about which wood carries the bloom, and the disagreement is real: coral honeysuckle flowers on new growth, while European honeysuckle flowers on old growth, the stems that grew the previous season. Both readings end at the same instruction, which is to keep the pruners off the plant until it has flowered. A tidy winter trim on a plant that carries its buds on last season's wood removes the bloom before it opens, and the gardener sees only a healthy vine that failed. The trigger to watch is the plant itself: once the last flowers on a cluster have browned and dropped, the window is open. Work with clean sharp tools, take each stem back to a junction with another stem or down to ground level, and leave no stubs standing in the middle of a cane.
Beyond timing, the annual job is small, and how small depends on which honeysuckle is on the fence. Coral honeysuckle grows fast and asks for almost nothing, and most established plants want no more than the cut after bloom. European honeysuckle grows vigorously and still requires little maintenance. Japanese honeysuckle is the exception that costs weekends: it grows just as fast and takes far more work to hold in place. Size is negotiable where a vine has outgrown its spot, since Goldflame honeysuckle climbs up to 13 feet and can be held as a 6-foot shrub. A plant gone thick and woody at the base, with all the flowers out of reach at the top, can be rebuilt gradually over three seasons or cut hard once while it is dormant. Whichever repair goes in, watch the regrowth for insects and disease over the season that follows, since a plant rebuilding itself from the base is more vulnerable while it does. One situation reverses everything above. A bush honeysuckle you have not removed yet should be cut hard for the opposite purpose, since hard pruning that stops it fruiting curbs the spread.
Four cuts, and when each one goes in
The four cutting jobs a honeysuckle asks for, each with the moment it belongs in and the figure it carries.
Why a honeysuckle will not bloom
A honeysuckle that grows hard and never flowers is usually short of light. The growing conditions come first: honeysuckles bloom best in full sun and prefer medium moisture, so the site and the watering are what get checked and adjusted before anything is cut or fed. Coral honeysuckle will grow in some shade, and the flowering there is visibly poorer, which is the exact shape of the complaint, a healthy plant in a place that suits its leaves and starves its buds. Climate pulls the other way in the South, where European honeysuckle does better with part afternoon shade through hot summers. The target is a plant with its top in open sun and its roots out of the worst of the afternoon, and moving a young vine a short way along a fence can be enough to change the outcome.
The second cause is the calendar. Honeysuckle withstands pruning at other times of the year, and it will flower less, if at all, when it gets it, so a vine given a neat winter tidy every season can grow well for years and bloom barely at all. Skipping a year of pruning is a fair test on a plant that has been trimmed on a schedule: leave it untouched through one full season and watch what it does with the wood it keeps. The third cause is age, and it asks for patience, since gardeners write in with vines two years in the ground, growing profusely, that have never carried a flower. Work through the fixes in the order they cost. Open the light first, because that test is free. Move lawn feeding away from the root zone next, and water deeply and less often through the early summers. Then put the cut in the window after bloom, and give a young plant time to settle before deciding something is wrong with it.
Checks for a vine that will not flower
Run these in order on a plant that grows well and refuses to bloom, cheapest check first.
How big honeysuckle gets
Size depends on whether the plant climbs or stands on its own, and the climbers are the tall ones. Coral honeysuckle runs 10 to 20 feet on a width of 3 to 6 feet, and a second measurement puts it lower, at 8 to 15 feet. European honeysuckle reaches the same 10 to 20 feet and typically twines and scrambles to 12 feet, going to 20 only infrequently. The shrubs trade height for width. Winter honeysuckle stands 6 feet 6 inches to 10 feet tall and spreads 6 to 10 feet across, and Morrow's and Tatarian honeysuckle settle at 6 to 10 feet tall and wide, gaining about a foot a year. Amur honeysuckle is the largest of the shrubs at 10 to 15 feet, or 10 to 20 feet tall and wide by a second measurement, putting on a foot or more a year into a rounded shape with arching branches. Japanese honeysuckle is measured in stem length: it grows several feet a year and its stems easily reach 30 feet or more, while the published maximums for the species scatter from 16 feet at one end to 120 feet at the other.
USDA hardiness
Hardiness splits by species. Honeysuckle as a genus covers zones 4a through 9b, and coral honeysuckle covers that whole band on its own, 4a through 9b, with zone 8 the point where it starts holding some foliage through the winter. Winter honeysuckle stops one step short of the warm end, at 4a through 8b. Japanese honeysuckle and Goldflame honeysuckle share the narrowest band, 5a through 8b. European honeysuckle is given as 5a through 9b and also called winter hardy to zone 4, so gardeners at the cold edge of its range have to decide which figure to plant by. Amur honeysuckle reaches furthest into the cold at 3a through 8b, and it is shade tolerant on top of being resistant to heat, drought and severe winter cold, which is why it turns up on weed lists from the Midwest to the Atlantic.
Buying one and picking the spot
Buy the native vine in early spring, when specialty and online nurseries typically sell it bare root. Honeysuckle will also grow in a container, so a patio plant is a fair proposition as long as the pot carries something narrow for the stems to wrap. Placement deserves more thought than the planting date, and one siting rule catches people out: coral honeysuckle is highly flammable and should not go inside the defensible space around a house. In fire country that moves the vine off the wall and out to a freestanding arbor. The second placement question is what sits on the other side of the fence, because invasive honeysuckles favor sunny open ground: clearings such as pastures, fields and meadows, forest edges, roadsides and open woodlands.
Toxicity and pet safety
The berries are the hazard, and what they do depends on the species. Japanese honeysuckle fruit brings on vomiting and diarrhea, and in quantity it goes further, to pupil dilation, cold sweat, a rapid heartbeat and convulsions; the poison is saponins, it sits in the fruit, and a large amount has to be eaten for the worst of it. That is the honeysuckle flagged as poisonous to humans and as a problem for children. Amur honeysuckle is the milder one, and what its berries cause is severe diarrhea. Coral honeysuckle berries are inedible, with no poisoning reported for the species at all. Handling the plant is not part of the problem, since Japanese honeysuckle does not cause contact dermatitis.
Most of the genus is inedible, and exactly one species is grown for fruit that people eat, Lonicera caerulea, which reaches the trade under several names. That exception matters because of what sits beside it: the record that names the fruits of Japanese honeysuckle as the poison part tags its flowers as edible, and that pairing is how the childhood nectar habit turns into an assumption that the berries are fair game too. For dogs and cats there is nothing to quote in either direction, because the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant list has no honeysuckle entry. The fruit is the part that causes trouble on every species that has been assessed, so the useful step in a yard with a dog or a toddler is to settle which honeysuckle is on the fence and to clear the dropped berries under it.
Hummingbirds, moths, and what else it feeds
The native vine is the one that pays wildlife back. Penn State Extension puts native honeysuckle on the keystone plant list for the eastern temperate climate, a designation that marks it as host to 35 pollinators. Coral honeysuckle draws hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and some moth pollinators, feeds songbirds with its red berries, and serves as a larval host for the spring azure butterfly and the snowberry clearwing moth. European honeysuckle works a different set of visitors, pollinated by long-tongued bees, butterflies and moths, and hosting the larvae of the red admiral butterfly and the twenty-plume moth. Even the winter-flowering shrub earns something: its flowers are an excellent nectar source for honey bees foraging on warm winter days, and its tiny red berries feed birds and small mammals. Coral honeysuckle resists deer, black walnut, compaction and salt, though white-tailed deer will still browse the foliage. That salt tolerance is what makes the vine useful in a coastal garden where spray reaches the fence.
How honeysuckle spreads and how to propagate it
Three methods propagate honeysuckle: layering, stem cuttings and seed. Layering asks the least of a gardener, since a stem pinned against damp soil roots where it touches and can be cut free once it has taken hold. The same readiness shows up beyond the garden gate. Coral honeysuckle is primarily native to the southeastern United States and has escaped cultivation to naturalize across other parts of the eastern United States, including several counties in central and southern Missouri, where it grows along roadsides, on stream banks and in thickets. Japanese honeysuckle runs the same trick with more routes, spreading by rhizomes and by above-ground runners as well as by seed that birds and small mammals carry well away from the parent plant.
Pests and diseases
Aphids head a short list. Across the genus the insect pests are aphids, scale, beetles and thrips, and some species pick up powdery mildew and leaf spots in hot, humid summers. On coral honeysuckle the entire watch list is aphids, with powdery mildew and leaf spots showing particularly in hot and humid summer climates, and leaf miners belong on that list as well. The aphids settle on flowers and foliage, which is why the damage lands on the buds the plant was bought for. European honeysuckle brings honeysuckle aphids and scale, and Goldflame honeysuckle is susceptible to powdery mildew and can be troubled by aphids. There is a natural check on the worst of them: native ladybug beetles have been seen controlling the European honeysuckle aphid.
What actually goes wrong, in order
Ordered as they came up in sixty honeysuckle threads on gardening forums and university question lines, most frequent first. Eight of those threads carry two complaints at once, so the counts add up to more than sixty. No counted survey of honeysuckle problems exists, so this is the order the sample fell in.
Twelve threads, the largest group in the sample. The questions repeat: what month to cut, how much to take at once, and whether a plant gone thick and woody at the base survives a hard cut.
Eleven threads. The plant is healthy, green and putting on length, several of them in containers, and the owner is torn between blaming the shade that crept over the bed and the lawn feeding that reaches the roots.
Eight threads covering powdery mildew, leaves that came out deformed, curled and rolled, and shrubs and vines dying back with no cause the owner can name.
Seven threads on which trellis suits the plant, how to make a vine take hold on a house or a smooth surface, and how to train one sideways along a fence.
Six threads, and the timing is what stings: the colony arrives on the flower buds just before they open, and one owner is asking how hard the plant can be cut back to be rid of them.
Six threads whose subject is removal: stumps sprouting again, wild vines running through a fence line, and whether severed pieces root where they land.
Four threads. Some are red-flowered native plants doing exactly what their species does, and the rest are named selections bought on a label that promised fragrance.
Meaning and symbolism
Honeysuckle's meanings come from the way the plant behaves: a stem that wraps whatever it touches and holds on, and a scent that arrives after dark. The older readings the vine has carried, and its place on June birthday lists, are set out on the honeysuckle flower meaning page. The other climber grown chiefly for evening scent is jasmine.
Honeysuckle advice that does not hold up
Removing an invasive honeysuckle attracts confident advice, and some of it costs a weekend or a stand of woodland.
The myth: A hollow brown center is the giveaway, so a stem that is not brown inside must be native.
The reality: Hollow against solid is the reliable test; the color word is not dependable, since the same hollow pith is described as brown in one account and as white or tan on mature Amur stems in another.
The myth: Cut the shrub down and it is gone.
The reality: Amur honeysuckle grows back dense and vigorous from the stump, and fire alone removes the top growth while the plant resprouts from the root system.
The myth: Any brush killer will finish invasive honeysuckle.
The reality: Garlon does not control bush honeysuckle, and the strength that works depends on whether the herbicide is painted onto a cut stump or sprayed on the leaves: the foliar rates are 1 percent for seedlings on dry upland ground and 1.5 percent just after the June bloom for mature shrubs.
What to expect as the plant ages
What a honeysuckle does in its first seasons, and what it turns into when nobody touches it.
The first season is spent on roots and stems. Leaf shape on a young coral honeysuckle changes as the season runs, the early leaves linear and strap-like, the later ones oblong to elliptic or obovate on the same plant. The bark at this age is smooth and green with a slight fuzziness.
Once flowering starts, fruit follows, and the berries differ by species. Coral honeysuckle's rounded red berries, less than an inch across, show from July to September; on European honeysuckle the deep red quarter-inch berries mature in September; and winter honeysuckle carries abundant orange to dark red heart-shaped berries about 0.3 inch across from late spring into early summer, usually hidden in the foliage. Amur honeysuckle ripens spherical dark red fruits a quarter inch across, and Japanese honeysuckle berries run to 7 mm, turning from green through red to blue-black.
Years later the plant is a different structure. The bark turns brown and begins to flake, the base thickens into hard wood, and the flowering climbs out of reach. That is the plant behind the pruning questions people take to extension services: one honeysuckle roughly ten years old, very thick and woody, had to be cut back while a taller arbor was built underneath it. Age changes the identification marks too: on Japanese honeysuckle the young stems are reddish and slightly hairy while the old ones are hollow, and Amur honeysuckle bark turns deeply fissured and peels off in strips.
Flower photos
FAQ
What month should I prune honeysuckle?
Cut it as soon as the flowers are finished, which in Maryland falls in late June to early July. Pruning at other times of the year does not hurt the plant, and it will flower less, if at all.
Can I cut honeysuckle back to the ground?
Only as a repair, and only on a dormant plant. Renovation pruning takes a severely overgrown honeysuckle down to 12 inches from the ground in late winter, and abundant flowering can take two years to come back. The gentler route removes one third of the branches at ground level each year for three years, so the plant keeps flowering while it is rebuilt.
Why is my honeysuckle growing but not flowering?
Check the light and the water first, because honeysuckles bloom best in full sun and prefer medium moisture. Then look at what reaches the roots: high nitrogen fertilizer, lawn feed included, produces foliage at the expense of flowers.
Why does my honeysuckle have no smell?
The species decides it. Coral honeysuckle's large red trumpets are not fragrant, and they are worked by hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. The heavy sweet scent belongs to European honeysuckle, and it is strongest after dark.
Is there a non-invasive honeysuckle?
Shop the native coral honeysuckle by cultivar name, and 'Dropmore Scarlet' sits among its named selections. Garden-bred honeysuckles rarely turn weedy and usually take over nothing more than the structure they are given.
Should I remove invasive honeysuckle?
Yes, and take the young vines first, before they strangle plants you want to keep. In Illinois it counts among the biggest threats to native ecosystems, and its fruit is a poorer wildlife food source than it was once thought to be.
When is the best time to cut down bush honeysuckle?
Fall, because the plant is sending energy down to its roots then and it is one of the only shrubs still in leaf, which makes it easy to find. Late summer, early fall and the dormant season all work, with the herbicide going onto the cut stump immediately after cutting.
Is honeysuckle poisonous to humans?
Treat the berries as off limits, especially where children play: Japanese honeysuckle is flagged as poisonous to humans and as a problem for children. Most of the genus has inedible fruit, and one species, Lonicera caerulea, is grown for berries people do eat.
Is honeysuckle poisonous to dogs?
The berries are the part to keep a dog away from, so pick up what drops under the plant. Eating any plant material may cause vomiting and gastrointestinal upset in dogs and cats, and the emergency animal poison control line is (888) 426-4435.
Does honeysuckle have health benefits?
What the plant records carry is folk use, not tested medicine. Coral honeysuckle was dried and smoked for asthma, chewed leaves were put on bee stings, and a decoction of the leaves was taken for coughs and sore throats, while the flowers of European honeysuckle are recorded as antispasmodic, astringent, diuretic, expectorant and used to reduce fever.
Interesting tips
- Winter honeysuckle earns a place indoors before it earns one in the border: branches cut while the buds are still closed can be brought inside for fragrant arrangements in early spring.
- Turn a bush honeysuckle leaf over before deciding which one you have. Morrow's honeysuckle has a soft felted texture on the underside and a blunt tip, while Tatarian leaves are smooth and largely hairless.
- The newest leaves on Diervilla, the native shrub sold under the same bush honeysuckle name, often come out bronze-orange or purplish-red, and cultivars push that color further.
Related Guides & Flowers
Honeysuckle flower meaning
What the vine has stood for, and why it lands on June birthday lists.
Clematis
The climber most often put on the same arbor, with a native species among the fragrant substitutes for Japanese honeysuckle.
Jasmine
Evening scent on a climber again, with a different set of care problems behind it.
Types of flowers
The full flower catalog, sorted by type, for whatever goes on the fence next.