10 award-winning honeysuckles

Honeysuckle is a quiet hero for garden wildlife, offering food and shelter across the seasons. With

Deciduous refers to plants (mainly trees and shrubs) that lose their leaves seasonally, usually during autumn. This is a natural process triggered by the season's shorter days and lower temperatures and allows plants to conserve energy during the winter months.

The variety of living organisms (plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms) in a particular environment. Boosting the biodiversity of your garden has many benefits, including supporting wildlife, improving soil health and reducing the likelihood of pest and disease problems.

biodiversity

Winter wonder

© Dorling Kindersley Ltd

This plant is the most desirable of the winter flowering shrubby honeysuckles

Lonicera × purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’ is among the most admired winter-flowering honeysuckles. From the coldest months through early spring, it produces an abundance of glistening white blooms tipped with bright yellow anthers. These sweet, lemon scented flowers are rich in nectar, providing a vital food source for bumblebees and other pollinators when little else is available.

A feast for senses

This plant has deep pink, orange and yellow flowers appearing in late summer.

Lonicera × heckrottii 'Gold Flame' hort is an exceptionally beautiful climbing honeysuckle, which is heavily scented, strong, and fast-growing. It thrives best with support on a pergola or arch, where its tubular flowers arranged in terminal whorls can be admired. Deep pink on the outside and orange-yellow within, the flowers appear from June to August, adding a splash of vibrant colour. By day, bees, butterflies, and even ladybirds feast on its nectar, while at dusk, its fragrance intensifies drawing in moths. In hot summers, it may also produce clusters of red berries, a welcome treat for birds. A deciduous or semi-evergreen climber that is happy in full sun or partial shade can reach heights of 8m (26ft). Hardiness rating H5.

A banquet for bees

This plant has an abundance of nectar in summer months.

Lonicera periclymenum 'Graham Thomas' is a vigorous deciduous climber with deep green oval leaves that are whitish beneath. Throughout the summer months and into Autumn, this honeysuckle shows off its wonderfully fragrant, terminal clusters of pearl white flowers which mellow to a soft yellow as they age. Not only an RHS award winner but another RHS Plant for Pollinators due to an abundance of nectar in summer months and crimson berries in the autumn and winter months, all excellent for feeding wildlife. Happy in full sun or partial shade this climber can reach heights of 8m (26ft). Hardiness rating H6.

Golden hideaway

This plant can be used as an alternative to box hedging.

Lonicera ligustrina var. yunnanensis ‘Baggesen’s Gold’ is a vibrant, dense evergreen shrub valued for both its ornamental appeal and its wildlife benefits. Its bright golden-yellow foliage in summer deepens to greener tones in winter,

Big and bold for the brave

This plant is the largest and most flamboyant of all honeysuckles.

Lonicera hildebrandiana, the Giant Burmese Honeysuckle, is the largest and most flamboyant of all honeysuckles. Capable of climbing to heights of 12m (39ft), it carries vast, glossy dark green leaves and enormous tubular flowers, each up to 15cm long. Opening in soft cream, the blooms deepen through yellow to rich, tropical orange, carrying an intense, sweet fragrance that hangs in the evening air. Flowering continues throughout summer, followed by striking red berries that add to its exotic appeal. Evergreen when overwintered indoors, this bold climber is only reliably hardy outdoors in the mildest parts of the UK and must be protected from frost, making it a plant for gardeners willing to indulge its tropical tastes and be rewarded in spectacular style. Prefers to be planted in full sun. Hardiness rating H2.

Every colour of the rainbow

Blue-green leaves, purple stems and flowers in shades of red, orange and yellow

Lonicera ‘Mandarin’ is a vigorous, deciduous climber whose young stems and spring leaves glow bronze and copper‑purple before settling into a glossy, deep blue-green. In early summer, ‘Mandarin’ shows off its main flush of tubular flowers in a brilliant mandarin orange-red on their outer curves, which open to show warm yellow‑orange throats that gleam against the lush foliage. Terminal whorls of flowers continue to appear in scattered flushes until Autumn. Though unscented and without berries, the flowers blaze with such colour that the absence is scarcely noticed and pollinators readily seek out the nectar and pollen rich flowers. This twining honeysuckle can stretch to 8m (26ft) and will enthusiastically scramble over a trellis or wall or can be pruned back into a dense shrub. Thriving in fertile, moist but well‑drained soil, this rainbow honeysuckle is happiest on an east or west-facing wall in partial shade. Hardiness rating H5

Classic cottage garden climber

A prolific late-season honeysuckle with evening fragrance and excellent garden presence.

Lonicera periclymenum ‘Serotina’, the Late Dutch Honeysuckle, is a cottage-garden classic, valued for its long season of richly coloured, scented flowers. Vigorous and deciduous, it quickly covers trellises, arches and pergolas with dark green leaves that are pale beneath, and large trumpet-shaped blooms that are a deep purple-red on the outside and warm yellow within. Flowering from midsummer through to autumn, its sweet fragrance intensifies in the evening, drawing in bees, butterflies and other garden visitors. As the season turns, glossy red berries follow, providing a valuable food source for birds, while the dense, twining growth offers shelter and nesting opportunities. This wildlife hero is another winner of the RHS Plants for Pollinators award. Happy in full sun or partial shade and reaching up to 8m (26ft) in height, this easy-going honeysuckle thrives in most well-drained soils, needing only light pruning to keep its generous growth in check. Hardiness rating H6.

Hot border hero

A striking honeysuckle valued for its intense colour and reliable summer performance.

Lonicera × tellmanniana is one of the most striking and unusual honeysuckles, prized for its vivid, unscented flowers in shades of burnt amber and glowing golden-orange, flushed red in bud. From late spring through summer, large

Clusters of flowers or fruit growing from the same point or node on a stem. The term is commonly used in relation to tomatoes.

Sun-soaked scent

A heat-tolerant honeysuckle with richly scented flowers that perform reliably even in summer warmth.

Lonicera etrusca ‘Superba’ is a vigorous, deciduous or semi-evergreen, heat-tolerant honeysuckle with a distinctly Mediterranean air, that is well suited to warmer gardens. This woody, twining climber carries red-tinged young shoots and soft downy, grey-green leaves that help it cope better with heat than many other honeysuckles. From early to midsummer, and often continuing into late summer, large clusters of richly fragrant, two-lipped tubular flowers appear at the shoot tips, opening red with pale throats before softening through cream to warm orange-yellow as they age. The scent remains strong even in the heat of the day, followed later by bright red berries that extend its seasonal interest. Reliable and free-flowering, this long-established selection thrives in full sun on a warm, south or west-facing wall, reaching heights of 4m (13ft). It can adapt well to a range of well-drained soils and makes an excellent choice for our warming climate. Hardiness rating H5.

Purple-stemmed evergreen

A vigorous evergreen honeysuckle with purple-tinted stems and a long season of richly scented flowers.

Lonicera japonica var. repens is a vigorous, evergreen honeysuckle prized for its long season of fragrance and generous habit. Purplish stems and softly tinted leaves quickly sprawl across walls, pergolas and trellises, providing year-round cover and screening. From spring through late summer, clusters of tubular white flowers flushed with red-purple open in abundance, their powerful scent filling the air, before fading gently to yellow as they age. In warm summers, the display is followed by glossy purple-black berries that extend its seasonal interest. Reaching up to 8m (26ft), this easy-going climber thrives in moist, well-drained soil and performs well in partial shade, making it an excellent choice for seating areas, shady structures and garden boundaries, although its enthusiasm is best kept in check with regular pruning. Hardiness rating H5.