Limber Honeysuckle

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, like our American fly honeysuckle, about a foot and a half a year. It is a low vine or sprawling shrub whose stems arch or twine 3 to 10 feet, and a plant spreads 3 to 6 feet.

Whorls of tubular flowers, half an inch to an inch long, open in May and June at the tips of last year's shoots. They run from yellow to red or purple, and the leaf pair beneath them joins into a cup. Bright red to orange-red berries a quarter to half an inch long ripen from July into September, and birds eat them. The leaves are whitish beneath and turn yellow in fall.

It grows wild from Quebec and Maine west across Canada to the Yukon, and south to Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Its home is open woods, thickets, rocky slopes and bluff ledges, and in the southern mountains only at high elevations. Maine lists it as endangered, and Illinois and Kentucky each list one of its varieties as endangered.

How to grow Limber Honeysuckle

Limber honeysuckle grows in full sun, part shade or shade, and it flowers most in full sun on moist soil. It takes sandy, loamy or rocky soil, moist or dry, as long as it drains, and it rides out a wet spell. It climbs only low, so a fence, a short trellis or a stout stake suits it. 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. Tie a few stems to a stout stake for a low bush, or lead them to a trellis. Clean the seed from the berries and sow it outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep, under a little straw. For a spring sowing, chill the seed damp in the refrigerator for two to three months first. In one germination test, nearly all of it sprouted.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. It flowers on last year's wood, so prune only right after it blooms. Stems that touch the ground may root, which widens 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 bumble bees visit the flowers. Powdery mildew can appear, but no serious pest or disease troubles it. Songbirds eat the berries, but they are toxic to people.