The Scented Garden - Honeysuckle

There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, 100 of which occur in China.  Many of the species produce a sweet edible nectar.  The breaking of the honeysuckle stem will release this powerful sweet odour.

Surely this is the best known of cottage garden climbers.  Well loved for its sweetly fragrant tubular flowers, this classic climbing honeysuckle is ideal for covering walls and fences, or romping through mature shrubs and trees.  Bees and butterflies love the nectar rich flowers, which are followed by round red berries that attract birds in late summer.

Add caption

I have this one twining through the ivy on the front of the house - the common name for it is Woodbine but the genus Lonicera is named in honour of Adamus Lonicerus (or Adam Lonicer) who was a German Renaissance Botanist whose first important work on herbs, the Krauterbuck was published in 1557.

Adam Lonicer

The blossom of the Wild Woodbine can be collected to make Honeysuckle Jelly (see recipe here)


There was an old Music Hall song written about Honeysuckle in 1901 called The Honeysuckle and the Bee.

Honeysuckle is an important source for nectar loving insects and the smell of wild honeysuckle is intoxicating, especially on a warm summers evening when it is pollinated by night flying moths.

via

Monty Don says:-

One of the greatest joys of living in the British countryside at this time of year is the heady tangle of fragrances along country lanes flanked by hedgerows. We gardeners carefully cultivate plants for their scent but I like 'free' fragrances that suddenly enter one's world as much as any, and the best of these wild smells undoubtedly comes from the Honeysuckle which is found sprawling and creeping along the hedgerows for mile after fragrant mile. read more of this article here

Samuel Pepys wrote:-  "The bugles blow scent instead of sound" - he called it the trumpet flower.

via