California Honeysuckle

I work for a school district and one of our sites would like to plant "California Honeysuckle". I have heard some Honeysuckles can be quite invasive, I am not sure which ones though.

Also, is there a way to train a Honeysuckle to have strong "trunks" at the bottom so I can keep them clean, avoiding future pest infestations?

Any help is appreciated. thanks:-)

There are a few species of honeysuckle that are native to California. Unfortunately, I don't have my books with me right now so can't give you better details, but Pink Honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula) is one. I can look some of them up when I get home if you would like. Trumpet Honeysuckle is a popular plant with many cultivars available. It is native to North America, but not to California. Not sure how well behaved it would be out there. One thing to keep in mind, native honeysuckle flowers generally don't produce the sweet perfume that Japanese Honeysuckle is famous for. They are usually great for attracting hummingbirds, though, which is a pretty good trade off.

This message was edited Dec 18, 2008 9:00 AM

I would try and get some clarification on what plant they actually have in mind--school districts aren't usually that into native plants and the CA native honeysuckles aren't really that widely planted so I suspect they're using that common name to refer to something else. They might be thinking of another non-native honeysuckle, or maybe they're thinking of something like Cape Honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis) which is a fairly commonly grown plant in this area.

I agree, I need to get exact species. I will and I will get back with you.

I can live without the perfume if hummers appear:-)

We've just planted two Lonicera hispidula, which grow more upright than the sprawling variety. They are said to be great wildlife magnets, as the flowers are loved by hummingbirds, and the later red berries are popular for other birds. They are very small right now, so I can't supply any first hand experience.

Is yours a cultivar or the straight species? I have one that's the straight species (bought from Las Pilitas I think), but mine is very sprawly (buying a trellis or something to let it grow up is on my to-do list because I keep stepping on it every time I go to weed that bed!). It's very beautiful--can't remember if it's fragrant or not but I love the flowers.

It's the species, Liz - also purchased at LP. So far they are both very upright. They suggested we just keep shaping it as it grows to keep it that way. No fragrance to speak of, we were told, which is just as well because one of them is right outside the bedroom window. A trellis won't be a problem if it does sprawl a bit. Have you seen berries on yours? Some of the pictures look very pretty.

Maybe that's what I'm missing then--the shaping part! I've just left it alone to grow and this is its 3rd winter in the ground. It's still not huge, seems to grow reasonably slow for a vine type plant, but that might be because I only water that bed once a month during the summer. I've actually got a couple berries on it now, they are pretty but they're just plain red like the berries on some honeysuckle that my mom had when I was growing up in Ohio, so they're pretty but definitely nothing unusual.

I planted a Longicera americana figuring it was a native -- nope! But it's not invasive like the japanese honeysuckle, either, and boy do the hummers adore it!