Grape Honeysuckle

Size, growth and what to expect

Grape honeysuckle grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It is a twining vine of 3 to 15 feet that sprawls into a loose, mounded shrub when nothing holds it up, and a plant spreads 3 to 5 feet.

Whorls of pale yellow flowers three quarters of an inch to an inch long open in May and June, often fading to orange or red. In fall the bright red berries, a quarter to half an inch across, hang in tight clusters like small bunches of grapes. Birds and small mammals eat them, and many kinds of caterpillars feed on the leaves.

It grows wild across the Midwest, from Ohio and Tennessee west to Minnesota and Oklahoma. Its home is moist woods, wooded slopes, thickets, bluff ledges and riverbanks. Vines planted in gardens have gone wild in New York and Massachusetts. Kentucky lists it as threatened and Tennessee as endangered.

How to grow Grape Honeysuckle

Grape honeysuckle grows in full sun or part shade, and it flowers most in full sun on moist soil. It takes moist or dry soil, clay or loam, as long as it drains well. With a fence or trellis it twines up to 15 feet, and without one it makes a loose, mounded shrub. Set the support 3 feet from a wall and set plants 3 feet apart. 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. Young plants need a support to twine on, and older ones can stand as a loose bush. Clean the seed from the red berries in fall and sow it outdoors a quarter inch deep, under a little straw. For a spring sowing, chill it damp in the refrigerator for two to three months first.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. Deer browse the leaves and stems, so cage young plants where deer are many. It blooms on old wood, so prune only right after it flowers. Stems that touch the ground may root and widen the plant into a patch.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Hummingbirds and long-tongued bees, butterflies and flies pollinate the flowers. Powdery mildew can appear, but no serious pest or disease troubles it. Birds eat the berries, but as with other honeysuckle vines, treat them as toxic to people.