Honeysuckle

When we bought our house it was late Autumn so we had no way of knowing what sort of flowers might have been planted. Turns out that the previous owners didn't do much gardening, so other than a rose bush and the small magnolia tree in the front yard there weren't any surprises. I kept hoping maybe a lilac bush or some lily of the valley would appear, but no such luck.

Between our house and the one next door is an old chain link fence. It was covered with what looked like dead vines, although I could see some green at the bottom in early spring. I cut most of the dead vine away, thinking how nice it would be if it was honesuckle. It's been growing and growing and new green growth nearly covers the fence. A few days ago blooms started to show and hurrah! It is honeysuckle!


If you've never tasted the nectar, you need to carefully pull off a blossom leaving the green bit at the bottom intact. Gently pinch off the green part and slowly pull the long stamen through the body of the flower. You should be able to pull out a tiny drop of nectar.

We were able to get some up with roots intact mostly intact to plant in the front yard. I think it would be wonderful if we could get it to climb a trellis and be able to sit on the porch and smell the wonderfully sweet fragrance. We're also trying to root some indoors to transplant as well, in case the first batch doesn't take.