# Grape Honeysuckle (Lonicera reticulata)

> A native midwestern honeysuckle with round, blue-green leaves, whorls of pale yellow flowers in late spring and clusters of red berries in fall.

Also called Lonicera prolifera, Lonicera sullivantii. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/grape-honeysuckle/

![Grape honeysuckle (Lonicera reticulata) two green berries on a round disk of joined leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/grape-honeysuckle-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALonicera_prolifera_kz1.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 3 to 15 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 8
- Grows wild in: The forest understory, stream banks and rocky ground
- Native range: 14 states, north to [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), south to [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), east to [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH) and west to [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS) ([Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN) and [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI)). Also recorded, not native, in [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA) and [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Dry
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Berries, September to October
- First crop: 3 to 5 years
- Mature spread: 5 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Grape honeysuckle is a native honeysuckle of the Midwest that twines through shrubs or stands on its own as a loose bush. Its leaves are round and blue-green under a waxy bloom that rubs off, and the pair beneath each flower cluster joins into one disk. In Minnesota it is the least common of the three vining honeysuckles, at the northwest edge of its range. Grow it as an accent on a short trellis in a cottage or pollinator garden, where hummingbirds and butterflies find it.

## 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.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Lonicera reticulata](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/lonicera-reticulata/)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation Field Guide: Grape Honeysuckle](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/grape-honeysuckle)
- [Minnesota Wildflowers: Lonicera reticulata, grape honeysuckle](https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/grape-honeysuckle)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Lonicera reticulata](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/lonicera/reticulata/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Lonicera reticulata](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=LORE5)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society): Lonicera reticulata](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/lonicera/lonicera-reticulata/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Lonicera chapter (Dubois and Blazich)](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Lonicera.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Lonicera reticulata](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/LORE5)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Lonicera reticulata, Grape Honeysuckle](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.134528/Lonicera_reticulata)
- [Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves: Kentucky Rare Plant List, September 30, 2022](https://eec.ky.gov/Nature-Preserves/biodiversity/Documents/2022%20Kentucky%20Rare%20Plant%20List%202.pdf)
- [Tennessee Natural Heritage Program: Rare Plant List](https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/environment/natural-areas/documents/na_tn-rare-plant-list.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Lonicera japonica, Japanese honeysuckle, Munger 2002](https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/lonjap)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other honeysuckles (Lonicera) we grow: [American Fly Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-fly-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Hairy Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hairy-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Limber Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/limber-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Mountain Fly Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mountain-fly-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Trumpet Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/trumpet-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Yellow Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/yellow-honeysuckle/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Rock Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/rock-elm/index.html.md), [September Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/september-elm/index.html.md) and [Common Hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hackberry/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Grape Honeysuckle, add ?species=grape-honeysuckle with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=grape-honeysuckle&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Grape Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=grape-honeysuckle): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Grape Honeysuckle as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=grape-honeysuckle (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Grape Honeysuckle is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=grape-honeysuckle (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Grape Honeysuckle needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=grape-honeysuckle:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Grape Honeysuckle where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=grape-honeysuckle&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Grape Honeysuckle goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=grape-honeysuckle&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Grape Honeysuckle flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=grape-honeysuckle