This is a large bushy honeysuckle shrub. It blooms in winter with sweet fragrance and tiny white blooms. I put it at the very end of the dry creek bed, to define the end of the creek bed and to edge it from the weeds in the meadow.
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| from MoBot |
It can get big and rangy, about 8 feet tall and spreading, but that will be okay in the area between the creek bed and the meadow, right by the compost heap. The question is whether I'll need to limb it up so we can pass by the compost pile and the end of the creek bed.
In mid April of 2013 it was still small, just a few stems, but it flowered, and the scent was sweet and tropical, but delicate. I only smelled it as I walked by the end of the creek bed. When it is large and full of flowers some year it will be heavenly.
In summer 2013 it started to get some size, and to form some wildly arching long stems. It keeps green leaves well into fall.
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| 10/5/13 |
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| 11/2/13 |
In the winter of 2014 the stems were girdled badly and the shrub never bloomed or leafed out. I cut back the entire thing, to about 6 inches, and there were some green leafing stems that had rooted from the main plant which were growing nearby. I think I can regrow this from those living stems!
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| 4/12/14 before cutting to the ground |
It did regrow from the roots in 2014, and quite nicely. Although there wasn't much to see all summer, by fall it was a full plant again.
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| 11/3/14 |
In 2015 this shrub gained some size and fullness.
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| 7/9/15 |
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| 10/29/15 |
In mid April 2016 this shrub finally had some pretty white flowers that came out just as the leaves were opening -- but not many blooms, and they were small. I did get the faintest whiff of fragrance one afternoon as I walked by.
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| 4/19/16 |
