06 March 2012

Coral Honeysuckle Vine Gets Its Groove On



The native coral honeysuckle vine, Lonicera sempervirens, is fully coming into its own this year. Finally getting its groove on. I planted this about 3 years or so ago and it has slowly twined its way up the front porch post. It's hosted a ton of snowberry clearwing moth caterpillars. But, it's never really shone all its own. It's one of those plants that John walks by from time to time and tssks a little under his breath, admonishing me for not watering it or doing something to make it better. Until now.

This gorgeous vine is blooming and blooming and growing and growing. And the best part is, I haven't done a darn thing but ignore it.


Now, I may even need to trim it. By the way, these take well to trimming. I've even seen them hedged into relatively squarish shapes in the middle of garden beds with not a support in sight for the twining vines.

The long tubular red flowers are supposed to be timed with the hummingbird migrations. I haven't seen any hummers around here yet this season, but the honeysuckle ought to bloom for a while longer. Hopefully, it'll serve as a respite for some of the little birds.

As you can see from the top photo, the purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, is also blooming like nuts already. Seems really early this year. The echinacea in the back are barely even poking their new leaves above ground, but this group up front never died back and were ready to go for it at the first feel of warm weather.

4 comments:

Steph@RamblingWren said...

Gorgeous! I so badly want to plant this vine, however the only place I have for it is in part shade. I keep asking people at the garden center if it would grow in shade and they all say it needs full sun. Your purple coneflower is beautiful. I want to add this plant to my garden. I've tried it before, but once again, I think it needs full sun.

Heather said...

I was just eyeing this plant online last night. Damn you, now I really *have* to buy it!

Lee said...

Steph, I've read and now experienced that the vine prefers morning sun and afternoon shade, so maybe you have a place that fits those specs.

Mamaholt said...

I'm loving this vine too. Gorgeous!

Pam, over at Digging, showcased a Mexican Honeysuckle that is good for shade; it's on my shopping list.