Brighten up your garden (Honeysuckle)

Member Name: January

Product:	Honeysuckle
Date:	10/03/04 (5546 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice to look at and loverly scent

Disadvantages: none

Yes it's spring again and the weather is going to get a lot warmer, now is the time to get back into your garden and one of my favorite plants in the garden is the honeysuckle.

Honeysuckle is a great climbing plant often it is taken for granted a hedgerow plant but in a garden it can be a beautiful feature. The scent of the honeysuckle is loverly a powerful scent which can send you dreaming into thoughts of picnics and walks in the country, it's a relaxing scent and I think a must for all gardens.
Not only does it attract the honey bees, it also brightens up a garden with it's loverly colour and fragrance.

Honeysuckle can be grow in most parts of the garden.
They prefer a nice sunny place but can be grown in the shade too. Although this is a lot harder to get them to take root.
You can buy honeysuckle plants in any garden centre and this way you can grow them in pots until they reach a good size, large enough to be able to plant where you want them in your garden. You will probably pay anything from £2.00 upwards for a plant, like all garden centre's they charge different prices for the size of the plant.

I'm lucky enough to have a gazebo where the honeysuckle has taken root around one of the posts and is now half way up it wrapped around the post, this year it may well reach the top and then I can train it to go over the roof to meet up with the clematis which has already spread to the roof.

When you plant a new honeysuckle plant you need to feed it to encourage stem growth. This can be done by feeding it plenty of nitrogen and phosphorus, these again can be bought in a packet at the gareden center.
An organic feeder of blood, fish and meal can also be bought at the garden center and will help your honeysuckle to produce good strong roots and leaves.
When your feeding your new plant always look for weak or dead shoots and prune these off, which will give the new stronger shoots a better c
hance.

Pruning a honeysuckle is very easy you only have to cut it back to the size you want it to be, you don't have to prune it every year, like roses.
Just take off any dead stems and clip the tops
Honeysuckle is good for growing up tressles, up drain pipes and over fences and other places where you want cover.
It can also be grown in with a hedge to add colour to it.

The best types of honeysuckle to buy are
Lonicera pericly-medium. This one has nice yellow flowers and has a strong scent. it flowers between June and September.
L. caprifollium has pinkish flowers and also has a strong scent, this one flowers between June and October.
These are the one's I grow in my garden and are my favorite. They can be grown in a moderately rich welll drained soil, they both do well in a light shaded area of the garden and can be planted out in september to march.

Well, if your thinking that your garden needs a fresh look and that you'd like a nice scented garden to sit in and read a book, then adding honeysuckle to your would make it such a place. Have a nice day.

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