Southern Bush-honeysuckle

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows at a medium rate, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It makes a low, thicket-forming shrub of 3 to 5 feet and about as wide, spreading by suckers. Its glossy, dark green leaves are 2 to 6 inches long, with red veins and stems, and the new growth is bronze-purple.

Crowded clusters of sulfur-yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers, each about half an inch long, open on the new shoots from June to August. Small brown capsules follow and show from August to October. The flowers turn partly dull red with age, and in fall the leaves sometimes turn red or purple.

It grows wild on high mountain balds, rocky slopes, roadsides and stream banks. It is the commonest bush-honeysuckle of the southern Appalachians, from North Carolina and Tennessee south to Georgia and Alabama.

How to grow Southern Bush-honeysuckle

Southern bush-honeysuckle is best in full sun and takes part shade. It grows in average to dry, well-drained soil, and it thrives on windy, sunny, dry sites where little else will grow. It will not take salt or soggy clay. 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. Pick the brown capsules in fall and rub out the small seeds. Sow them shallowly in spring, with no special treatment. Softwood and semi-hardwood cuttings also root readily.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short, and after that it seldom needs it. It spreads by underground stems into a colony but is not invasive. It flowers on the tips of the new growth, so cut it back in late winter or early spring if it needs it, clearing out old and winter-killed stems. Deer seldom browse it.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Bumble bees work the flowers, and hummingbirds and butterflies visit them too. No serious pest troubles it, though leaf spot and powdery mildew can appear.