Last week's article warned about planting the wrong kind of honeysuckle vine So now, as promised, here are some commonly available "good" ones for gardens: Lonicera sempervirens, and my favorite, Lonicera heckrotti.
These won't put you in fear of the plant police (make that the nice Plant Protection and Quarantine people), or remind you of Jack in the Beanstalk (enjoy Tellitagan's RealAudio version if it's been a while since you heard the story) or suggest themselves as a challenging environmental topic for the next school science fair!
Actually, these smaller honeysuckle vines are well suited to garden use. One might work on an easy vine and trellis screening project or even trained to a pole as shown here in the Jack and the Beanstalk theme area of the renowned Michigan State University 4-H Children's Garden.
Birds seem to appreciate all of the honeysuckles; at my house hummingbirds swarm to the L. sempervirens trumpets and a robin nests in the Goldflame honeysuckle every year. Honeysuckle and wildlife, particularly songbirds, just seem to go together! So I'm glad to report I suspect L. periclymenum (the woodbine honeysuckle) was probably the featured plant in the delightful Legend of Honeysuckle Hollow from the library at Toad Hall.
Unfortunately, honeysuckle isn't the only controversial vine. Other well-loved vines are also on the bad list, but again to some extent this depends on where you live. For example, in the South, escaped wisteria is a weed. In colder areas, it isn't a problem. In some areas trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) is a weed, but not in others....
The frightening thing is that the list seems to be growing longer with every passing decade. And it's not limited to just vines, or trees, or shrubs or grasses. This excerpt from the fascinating book Invasive Plants: Weeds of the Global Garden touches on a number of these issues. The book is part of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden publications series.
Sometimes it's hard for a gardener to know what to do. Is the one "bad" honeysuckle or multiflora rose plant in my yard really going to make that much difference when the landowner down the road has hundreds of feet of hedgerow covered in it?
I suppose one answer would be to suggest that you not introduce a plant which is not yet a problem in your area but has the potential to become one.
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