Posted 12:23 am Thursday, March 22, 2012
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Hummingbirds Fight Over Coral Honeysuckle
By DEE BISHOP
Special To The Tyler Paper
What’s growing on that arbor? We hear this question all the time. It is the first thing you notice when entering the IDEA Garden.
Welcome to our own native coral honeysuckle vine (Lonicera sempervirens). This beautiful and well-behaved vine blooms from early spring through fall, less in mid-summer, but heavily in spring and fall. When hummingbirds are in the area, they fight over the abundant nectar in each bloom.
The flowers are reward enough, but this plant is also evergreen. Leaves are smaller and there are less of them, but green just the same. Can you think of a more perfect vine?
Special To The Tyler Paper
What’s growing on that arbor? We hear this question all the time. It is the first thing you notice when entering the IDEA Garden.
Welcome to our own native coral honeysuckle vine (Lonicera sempervirens). This beautiful and well-behaved vine blooms from early spring through fall, less in mid-summer, but heavily in spring and fall. When hummingbirds are in the area, they fight over the abundant nectar in each bloom.
The flowers are reward enough, but this plant is also evergreen. Leaves are smaller and there are less of them, but green just the same. Can you think of a more perfect vine?
Now look to your right and you will see its yellow counterpart growing on the fence. What a knockout! It is a beautiful yellow vine blooming on our black wrought iron fence. You will have to go to the garden to see it though. The coral one shows up best in a picture and I wanted you to drool over it.
These honeysuckles, unlike the wild and out or control Japanese one, remain well-behaved.
Every now and then you will find a plantlet beside it, but don’t worry, you won’t have to worry about finding a taker for it. I know, you love the wonderful scent of the Japanese one (sorry ours doesn’t have any scent), but controlling it is impossible. Plant other things for that wonderful scent.
Native honeysuckles grow in Texas without any help so they most certainly will grow in your yard if you can provide plenty of sunshine and good soil that drains well. Plant it on a fence or arbor, not some little flimsy one though as it gets big and fairly heavy.
We have a resident mockingbird that often nests in ours. They love the pretty red berries put on after flowering.
Have a look at these beauties and I am sure you will want one. You can find them anywhere plants are sold. Enjoy!
Dee Bishop writes about plants blooming in the Tyler Rose Garden.
These honeysuckles, unlike the wild and out or control Japanese one, remain well-behaved.
Every now and then you will find a plantlet beside it, but don’t worry, you won’t have to worry about finding a taker for it. I know, you love the wonderful scent of the Japanese one (sorry ours doesn’t have any scent), but controlling it is impossible. Plant other things for that wonderful scent.
Native honeysuckles grow in Texas without any help so they most certainly will grow in your yard if you can provide plenty of sunshine and good soil that drains well. Plant it on a fence or arbor, not some little flimsy one though as it gets big and fairly heavy.
We have a resident mockingbird that often nests in ours. They love the pretty red berries put on after flowering.
Have a look at these beauties and I am sure you will want one. You can find them anywhere plants are sold. Enjoy!
Dee Bishop writes about plants blooming in the Tyler Rose Garden.
