Lonicera Species, Winter Honeysuckle

I first smelled this plant growing in Georgia as a hedge in a neighbors yard and quickly stole a sprig and took it to a local nursery and...Read More was told it was winter honeysuckle. I bought a few and planted them in a part of my garden to block out a neigbor's ugly shed. It got big fast. What an awesome shrub! When I moved to north Florida I planted it again but it's not as robust nor smells as wonderful probably due to the impossible soil and flood/drought cycles we get here. Never-the-less it does its best and I love it. It isn't invasive but if u dont want any babies what-so-ever, just keep the lower limbs trimmed so they don't touch the ground and it won't develops roots on those stems and spread. That's the only way I have seen it spread.

This plant is very easy to grow, and content with almost no extra watering. We have had a drought a few years in a row, and this plant se...Read Moreems to be just fine with that. It flowers in February in 9B, 16 USDA, and I adore the scented flowers. It lives in a part of my garden that doesn't get full view from the house. It is not very ornamental; the leaves are just green, no fall color and the flowers are only pretty from really up-close. It provides a screen and it smells good at the same time as the Daphnes and a little earlier than the Edgeworthias.

I bought this plant over 20 years ago under the name "Wintersweet". It took me almost ten years to find out what it really is - Lonerica ...Read Morefragrantissima.
In my experience, it is a tall, somewhat rangy, shrub which throws off maybe one sucker a year and I have never had berries on it at all. Mine is planted along the road, halfway under a couple of pinoaks in heavy clay soil supplemented only with rocks.In mid February it perfumes the entire area with a fragrance which reminds me of Juicy Fruit Gum. Some people have said that it reminds them of "sweet dryer sheets" Its fragrance is comparable to the most fragrant Viburnums.
Sometimes a branch will die off and have to be cut out, but the individual branches don't seem to get more than 2 inches thick. In summer it is just a green shrub - a screen from the street.

I was riding my bicycle on the footpath down a main road in Sydney in the middle of winter, and the sweet fragrance of this plant stopped...Read More me. I had to sniff around till I saw the woody shrub with few leaves and many small single flowers buzzing with bees. I agree it's not an attractive bush which was about 5'/1.5m tall x 2'/0.6m wide in a semi shaded position with a minimum temperature of around 10°C/50°F. But other than low growing fragrant cyclamen, and white assylium, it seems to be the only plant that emits a strong fragrance right in the middle of winter here, and of the three I feel it has the best fragrance.

Read more: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/400/#ixzz3kFSzuTsQ

The tag on my plant said lonicera fragrantissima but I'm not 100% sure it's correct. I tried to tidy up my plant by removing prostrate b...Read Moreranches. This year I noticed all kinds of secondary rootballs, which suggested to me it was spreading, and fast! I decided to pull it our right then as I don't need this kind of thug. My plant bloomed in late winter but fragrance wasn't as strong as I had expected. Overall , it won't be missed.

Not a particularly attractive shrub. Not at all invasive in this part of Texas. I've had mine for 10 years, one in full sun, the other ...Read Morein part shade, and they are both about 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide. In the dead of winter, when everything in the yard is barren and asleep, this shrub will burst into bloom (which last for months--this year mine started blooming in December and are still going in March) and absolutely knock you out a hundred feet away with the fantastic fragrance. Plus it provides winter sustenance for the bees. Wish someone would make a perfume that smells like it. It's a little reminiscent of lily-of-the-valley, only stronger and richer.

Ordinarily Winter Honeysuckle blooms in February in my Zone 6A yard. This year, 2014, it didn't bloom until May.
It's early bloss...Read Moreom is a welcome omen in the late winter, but it's only modestly ornamental.

This easy, adaptable shrub is valuable for one reason: its extraordinary fragrance when little else is in bloom. It blooms here (Z6a) in ...Read Morelate winter or very early spring, with a light, sweet, penetrating scent like that of lemon blossoms. Its scent lacks the heaviness of Japanese honeysuckle, but it's strong and it caries. I can often smell a single shrub a hundred feet downwind, and my sense of smell is almost nonexistent. The flowers are small and bloom before the leaves emerge, but though they're attractive they're not very showy in the landscape.

Here in Boston, it often opens a few flowers during midwinter thaws. In the UK (Z8), it can bloom from October till February.

Branches can be brought into the house in winter and forced for use in arrangements. Their scent can perfume a room.

This is a big dowdy shrub, usually 6-10' tall (sometimes as much as 15') and equally wide. It's tardily deciduous and usually gets some powdery mildew late in the season. If you plant it, allow enough room, because it's big and very vigorous.

It blooms on old wood, so you can avoid losing a season's bloom by doing any renewal pruning in spring immediately after flowering. (It can regrow after being cut to the ground, or more conservatively you can cut out the oldest third of the stems each spring for three successive seasons.)

This was a popular shrub for a century after its introduction in 1845, but it fell out of fashion after WW2.

This species is often confused with other shrubby Asian honeysuckles (L. tatarica, morrowii, maackii, xbella) which are serious invasive threats to natural habitat over a wide swath of North America. Unlike the others, winter honeysuckle does not appear on the invasive or noxious weed list for any state. I've seen credible reports that it is locally invasive (by seeding, not by vegetative means) in Tennessee and parts of at least one neighboring state. The BONAP atlas indicates that its naturalized distribution is scattered and local in the mid Atlantic and southeastern states.

But over most of the East it does not easily spread. In Massachusetts, I've observed this plant for many years, and I've never seen a single seedling. I've also seen many places where various shrubby honeysuckles have taken over the understory layers of our forests, but I've never seen this species in a natural area here in the northeast.

Delightful fragrance, and it comes at a wonderful time of year for pollinating critters.

There are several types of shrub/...Read Moretree honeysuckles, and this one is almost never invasive. Check on the time of year that yours blooms if you suspect those invasive shrubs of being Winter Honeysuckle- the invasive shrubs in my area are of a different species... mostly Manchurian bush honeysuckle. Shorter shrubs usually, with berries that last all into winter, unlike winter honeysuckle.

I really love the winter honeysuckle shrub. There was one outside my bedroom window all the years I was growing up. When I found them a...Read Moret a local nursery several years ago, I purchased one for my garden and one for my sister. I love the late winter blossoms and the fragrant aroma of this shrub. That said, however, I do find it to be invasive. I planted mine in a well-tilled (1' deep tilling), and well-amended central backyard garden. My shrub is now more than 12 feet tall, has five significant plant offshoots, is more than 16 feet wide, and has taken over this entire garden area. I still love the winter honeysuckle, the cardinals nesting in the upper branches each spring, and everything about this shrub, except its' enormous size! I'm going to try to remove the offshoots (which are as tall as the original shrub), and attempt to bully it back to a suitable size. It's a beautiful, very healthy shrub, but it's huge and it's now covered a number of garden art items, including a large birdbath.

Honey bees love this plant. My neighbor has bees and every February they are on my Lonicera Fragrantissima. I feel this plant may be g...Read Moreood food for the bees. Bee keepers may want to keep a few of these plants close to their hives to help them survive the winters.

A commenter stated that other people have got this mixed up with a vine and it is not invasive. We do NOT have this shrub mixed up with ...Read Morea vine. Here in KY it is a shrub and it is invasive.

All the negative reviews have confused this plant with the invasive Japanese Honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica. This is not a vine but a woo...Read Moredy shrub. Fifteen years ago when I moved into my older home in LIttle Rock, an elderly specimen was growing at the southwest corner of the house. Over the years I've let a few of the branches grow out over the south facing windows of the den. Birds like to perch there and on sunny winter days when the fragrant blossoms open, I enjoy watching the honey bees, who I seldom see during the summer, gathering their nectar in the warm sun.

This plant becomes a large open shrub that is rather boring most of the year. Comes winter is when it shines! Small white flowers that ar...Read Moree very fragrant. It will occasionally sucker for a root, expecially if the root is cut. Occasionally it may produce a seed or two but its basically seedless. I would not consider it aggressive. Birds find the winter flowers a good source of food and its open habit a great place to nest.

Hardly invasive - I inadvertently left a potted cutting from Florida at the head of my driveway nearly 20 years ago. Never pruned, it has...Read More spread into a dowdy clump maybe 6 feet by 10 that delights me every January with incredible fragrance. This year, with our really mild winter, it started blooming in November and is still at it at the end of January. A couple observations - I have two friends who are unable to smell it at all; and I have seen birds eating the flowers - just now, a pair of house finches. I believe they are getting nectar, because they clip off a flower, much it for a second, and then drop it. I'm happy to share.

I agree with nifty413. Be sure to know the plant before posting any comments. Lonicera fragrantissima is a shrub from China, not a vine f...Read Morerom Japan. If it is invasive, I'd like to know the exact locations where it has taken over and crowded out native plants, so I can see it for myself. Mature plants don't make very many seeds, and I have not seen this plant propagate itself in the same manner as the Japanese Honeysuckle vine. Winter Honeysuckle would not be planted on a trellis. I'm certain that the vine mentioned in a that destroyed a trellis was a different plant, Japanese Honeysuckle. I searched the USDA Forestry Service invasive plant list and did not find Lonicera fragrantissima on the list. Lonicera has many species, some of which are native and not invasive at all.

I've always known this plant as "First Breath of Spring" and only in the last couple of years found out that it was a winter honeysuckle....Read More

Had a shrub for over 30 years in NC and when I moved to WV in 2004, this was one of the plants I HAD to bring to my new home. This is the second Spring after transplanting (had a delay in getting a start) and it bloomed very well. Still has a few blossoms, but is going leafy now.

In NC, it was a favorite of cardinals and mockingbirds, from the waxy-like blossoms to the red berries later on. As an avid bird lover, those attributes are why it is now in a favored spot in my front yard.

I never had a problem with runners, suckers, or anything else in NC. Have ground-rooted a branch here in WV as a starter plant for a friend.

My first start was from a great-aunt, and the one I have now is from an aunt. This plant has been in the yards of quite a few generations in our family, and no problems anywhere.

Someone needs to provide exact GPS coordinates of where this plant is acting as invasive and preventing native trees and shrubs from prop...Read Moreagating. It would seem that styrofoam cups or food containers from fast food establishments blown by the wind or carried by water would be equally or more likely to prevent native flora from propagating and flourishing in natural habitats.

PLEASE become informed before posting comments – especially about this species being a vine: which it is NOT.

Updated: found GPS coordinates for this species occurrence in Tarrant Co. The comments about the location denote phrases like "one large plant with a few smaller nearby." Other locations were adjacent to or in landscaped areas where the plant(s) had been deliberately planted. I'm not finding a justification for condemning this species in the state of Texas.

I started with one Winter Honeysuckle plant 10 years ago and in that time I have only found a few smaller plants coming up under the main...Read More plant. I transplanted these elsewhere in my landscape where the fragrance of the blooms in late winter can't be beat. The Negative comments about this plant being invasive or growing up a trellis must be for some other type of honeysuckle with the common name of Sweet Breath of Spring since I have found nothing about this plant to be invasive. It is a rather non descript large shrub most of the year, but is very drought tolerant and survives well in our West Texas weather.

This shrub has grown to about 6 feet in 4 years from a rooted cutting. It is unremarkable most of the year, and in bloom the twiggy habit...Read More makes it look messy. I like the winter blooms and will begin to prune it to shape now.

I have had a wild hunnysuckle invade my yard and it caused a real headache, came up in the yard, all over the fence, in the park behind t...Read Morehe yard. If this is anything like that I would avoid it because it will overtake native plant life and choke it out. In the South we have to be very careful about such things which grow very quickly and take over when we don't want them to.
Steinbeck from Dallas, Tx.

This shrub is not a vine as someone below mentioned. In my area (middle TN) it is not the least invasive, contrary to the article in the ...Read Morelink below. I have seen only one volunteer seedling in the 20+ years I have been growing it. I wouldn't be without it.
Also it is from China, not Japan.

This plant is a very invasive non-native, and in Kentucky it can take over a yard or stream bank in no time. I once spent a summer remov...Read Moreing it from a new home. This means digging up the roots, only to discover that my yard was almost twice as large as it had seemed before the 'Japanese" honeysuckle as it is known here was removed. Birds will eat the seeds which then spread the plants and at the same time the seeds do not provide the nutrition to the birds that native plants will provide. It is bad all the way around. Witch Hazel will scent the air at this time and really doesn't get much taller.

This is an invasive plant that threatens natives. It would be very irresponsible to purposely encourage its spread.

I was having a hard time in general when I first smelled this plant, and now when I smell it, all the bad feelings come back. I don't kno...Read Morew how to get past it. Maybe in my old age, it would not affect me like that, and I can try again. Being honeysuckle, it should grow where I live.

My mother planted lonicera fragrantissima to grow up a trellis/privacy screen next to the patio. As a child, I loved this vine because i...Read Moret was fragrant & beautiful, but it also eventually grew so prolifically that it destroyed the trellis. This was not a flimsy structure but made from 2"X1" slats & supported on 4"X4" posts set in concrete. Being too young at the time, I didn't understand why my mother had the vine taken out along with the trellis. This plant is on the USDA Forest Service's list of Non-native Invasive Plants of Southern Forests.

Heady fragrance while the the rest of the garden lies silent. Great to plant near sitting areas or downwind in the wintertime. Mature pla...Read Morent trained into a tree form can be interesting specimen with blooms from bare limbs with shaggy peeling bark. Must be pruned to maintain a tree form. In zone 7b/8a will become 15 feet tall and wide with a gently arching top.

In 1979 I moved into an older home in a near-in suburb of the District of Columbia. The house was flanked by an already mature Winter H...Read Moreoneysuckle with azaleas underneath. Over the years it has reliably bloomed with an intoxicating fragrance, varying from mid-December to March. The bush tends to accumulate dead branches which are pruned off annually, which I suspect is a big factor in its lovely shape. It stands over 15 feet high and is at least as wide, with a domed top and long arching branches hanging down. A big bonus: the birds love it.

This large, rangy bush isn't particularly attractive as a shrub, but the fragrance is heavenly and carries on the damp spring air. It bl...Read Moreooms for me in early Jan and continues until Mar/Apr. When I walk by the fence in early Jan and catch just a whiff of the delightfully sweet fragrance, I know that Spring is coming soon. Lonicera fragrantissima is tough and handles our dry summers with only very occasional watering. It spreads by suckers so it is easy to dig up some and transplant them to other locations.

I read in English gardening books that they suggest planting Lonicera fragrantissima in a mixed hedge to provide the fragrance while other shrubs provide the interesting leaves and structure.

Blooms in February. Very hardy and vigorous grower. Fragrant blossoms.

This plant is blooming here now, and an overwintgering hummingbird is greatly appreciating it!

10 yr old-great plant. flowers late winter here. under native oak & elms- practically full shade for 8 mths a yr.. gets sun in winter aft...Read Moreer trees drop leaves. never done a thing too it, but flowers fine. probably should trim/cut back based on others info for more flowers.

Winter Honeysuckle Lonicera fragrantissima is naturalized in Texas and other States.

When winter gray has seemingly devoured all life and the gloom threatens to dry up your very soul, this cheery fellow fills the air wit...Read Moreh a deliciously sweet, fruity fragrance. Like a lifeline thrown from the distant spring it is enough to remind one that maybe all is not forsaken. But don't be so grateful that you shy from the sheers. Left alone this shrub grows into an ungainly mess. Prune to just a few inches from the ground, after flowering of course. Don't wory, in almost no time, new growth will completely hide your butchery. Around Louisville, Winter Honeysuckle is commonly found as hedging around older homes. It seems to have been somewhat forgotten these days, but you won't forget its scent if you encounter it. If there is'nt one already wafting perfume from a neighbors garden then you certainly need to plant one in yours.

I love this plant, but here it is highly invasive, to the point of wiping out understory plants in the woods, as bad as privit, I keep it...Read More in my garden, but if we get government grants to erradicate it, i will remove mine, I have raised it in several locations and this are is the only one I have noticed any problems, It is a middle of the winter cut flower and hard to beat.

Worth growing for the sweetly fragrant flowers which appear before the foliage in January. Small inconspicuous flowers often continue unt...Read Moreill early March. The bush can be leggy and is best used in an inconspicuous location. I got my winter honeysuckle as a root cutting from a plant found blooming on an old abandoned home site. It grows for me in clay soil, amended with compost. I give it a little fertilizer and don't let it dry out in the heat of summer. It rewards me in winter with sweet smelling flowers that remind me spring is just around the corner.

Beautiful fragrance redeems the leggy and sprawling form. It has grown for many years at the end of a cane hedge, despite much interferen...Read Morece. I am going to move it this year. Cross your fingers.

My grandmother planted these in the 50's and they are still a "breath of spring" in late Feb. Also called "pouting bush" or "pouting flow...Read Moreer" because the flowers face opposite directions.