American Fly Honeysuckle

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, like southern bush-honeysuckle of the same family, about a foot and a half a year. It makes a shrub of 3 to 6 feet. Its untoothed leaves are 1.2 to 4.7 inches long, and the bark of older stems peels.

Yellow, tubular flowers open in pairs from April to June. Pairs of bright red berries ripen from June to August, and birds eat them. Unlike mountain fly honeysuckle, its paired berries stay separate and turn red rather than blue.

It grows wild in moist forests and forest edges, and in the South in bouldery coves and along mountain streams. It is common in the Northeast but rare in Indiana, Maryland, Tennessee and Georgia, at the edges of its range.

How to grow American Fly Honeysuckle

American fly honeysuckle grows in part shade or shade, and in sun where the soil stays moist. It wants a moist woodland soil. Set plants 3 feet apart and keep them 3 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Clean the seed from the red berries and sow it outdoors in fall, under an eighth to a quarter inch of soil and a light straw mulch. For a spring sowing, chill it damp in the refrigerator for two to three months first. In one germination test, all of the seed sprouted.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. It needs no pruning.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Bumble bees, hummingbirds and moths visit the flowers. A fungal disease has affected some wild populations.