Curly honeysuckle becomes the decoration of any garden, is considered a hedge. This ornamental plant is found in the forest belt of Northern and Central Europe, but is also common in the African jungle. The deciduous shrub has beautiful flowers, which many gardeners love to watch. Before deciding to plant a honeysuckle, familiarize yourself with the features of this decorative plant.
Curly decorative honeysuckle
Curly honeysuckle has beautiful flowers
From this type of honeysuckle, a hedge is obtained
Decorative honeysuckle does not bear fruit
Advantages and disadvantages of decorative curly honeysuckle
In the northern regions, the root system of climbing honeysuckle freezes, the bushes are deformed, the plant does not bear fruit. Therefore, in Siberia it is better not to grow it. There are a number of significant advantages to choosing climbing honeysuckle:
- unpretentiousness in leaving;
- resistance to drought;
- fast growth;
- stable immunity;
- long flowering period;
- growth with limited access to light;
- ease of reproduction;
- resistance to harmful insects;
- average life expectancy of 50 years.
In addition to intolerance to severe cold, an ornamental plant has other disadvantages that it is important to familiarize yourself with before planting:
- the need to form a bush;
- pruning, honeysuckle garter;
- harvesting plants for the winter;
- poor growth in the shade;
- poor growth when transplanting from place to place;
- risk of damage by harmful insects.
Growing Features
For the growth of honeysuckle, vertical support is needed (trellises, stakes, awnings, etc.). The plant creeps up and reaches its maximum size. Without support, the honeysuckle remains on the ground: first wilts, then rots. With proper design, a plastic shrub becomes a highlight of landscape design.
Curly honeysuckle can be surrounded by a fence, a country house, a gazebo, make a living canopy or hedge. For fast growth, the plant needs regular watering, garter branches and removal of lateral shoots. Otherwise, the bush grows randomly, quickly loses its decorative appearance.
The plant loves the sun and warmth, but also quickly stretches up in the shade. In the latter case, the flowers are not bright, but the fruits are small in size. The best place to grow climbing honeysuckle is the south side. Landing is best done in autumn or early spring.
Purpose and characteristics of decorative honeysuckle
This deciduous shrub reaches 6 m in height. The length of the leaves is up to 10 cm, the shape (lanceolate or oval) depends on the kind of honeysuckle, the flowers are voluminous, raspberry or pink in color, with a stable aroma. Red fruits with external attractiveness are very poisonous, unfit for consumption, do not have medicinal properties.
The honeysuckle bush begins to bloom in the spring - from May, June to the end of August. During this period, a steady, pleasant aroma comes from it. After the end of the season, the plant discards up to 1,000 flowers, the smell becomes less intense.
German honeysuckle attracts with a variety of colors - buds from white to purple. Whereas ripe fruits are exceptionally dark red.
How to breed?
It is better to buy climbing honeysuckle in the form of seedlings that are sold in containers with fertilizer. For planting, select soil with a neutral environment (optimal pH is 6.5-7.5). If the soil is acidic, treat it with slaked lime.
Plant the plant from the south side, as it does not tolerate cold, damp, and draft. To accelerate growth, use fertilizer, which includes 2 buckets of compost, 1 kg of wood ash, 50 g of superphosphate.
If the height of the shrub is more than 3 m, shorten the long shoots, and immediately cut the places of cut with a garden var. Subject to such simple rules, you can create a magnificent hedge of fresh flowers, provide shade in the gazebo or comfort in a personal plot.
Landing
The best time for planting decorative honeysuckle is early spring or autumn, when the plant is still sleeping. Necessarily the presence of nutrients in the soil, otherwise the growth of the bush slows down. The basic rules for planting decorative honeysuckle:
- Loosen the ground a few days before planting, remove weeds.
- For 2 days, prepare holes 50x50 cm in size.
- Provide a distance between seedlings of 2-3 m.
- At the bottom, lay a layer of expanded clay, gravel or sand as drainage.
- Pour mineral fertilizer, intensively water the soil.
- In the hole, make a slide, put seedlings on it, spread the roots.
- Nearby, install a vertical support so as not to spoil the root in the future.
- Fill the hole with soil, apply a layer of mulch on top.
Breeding
If you want to create a hedge, there are two options - buy ready-made seedlings or use an adult plant for propagation. Seeds are the most difficult method and not always effective. Propagation by cuttings is a long process, and layering is unpretentious and affordable if there is an adult plant on the site.
Layering
The optimal time for harvesting layering is from April to May. When choosing this method of reproduction, prepare 2-3 healthy and strong shoots, otherwise the plant will not take.
Sequencing:
- Cut the tops from strong shoots.
- Treat the shoots with a growth stimulator.
- Dig a hole next to an adult plant.
- Tilt the escape, lower it into the hole and bury it.
- Use brackets or supports for fixing.
- Water the plant abundantly.
- As soon as the root system is accepted and the shoot is strong, cut off from the mother bush.
- After 1 month of regular watering, transplant a young seedling to a permanent place.
Cuttings
In this case, choose fresh shoots with 3-4 buds, cut them to the trunk. Propagation by cuttings is carried out in the following sequence:
- Treat the shoot section with a growth stimulator (Kornevin).
- Put the cuttings in water, do not take out 2 weeks.
- When the first roots appear, transplant into open ground in a permanent place.
- To enhance growth, pre-fertilize the hole with a nitrogenous compound or peat.
- After planting, water abundantly.
Transplant young shoots of climbing honeysuckle into the open ground from August to October. The rest of the time, the root system may not be accepted, and landscaping will fail.
Seeds
For the propagation of climbing honeysuckle, seeds of a two-year plant are suitable, sow them in the spring. The sequence of actions is as follows:
- Remove the seeds from the ripe fruit, rinse, dry naturally.
- Before planting grain and soil, treat with a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate as a disinfection.
- Plant to a depth of 2-3 cm, sprinkle with earth, pour plenty of water and put in a warm, bright place.
- When sprouts appear, plant them in different containers, wait for the seedlings to grow stronger.
Care and growing
Curly honeysuckle is unpretentious in leaving quickly. Flowers appear only in the second year, subject to the following rules:
- Watering. The root system is fueled by water, but not flooded. To maintain color saturation, the leaves are sprayed.
- Loosening, weeding. Plants of the first year of life need to be spud. This process is best combined with weeding and loosening to provide oxygen to the soil.
- The formation of the bush. In spring and autumn, diseased, damaged and old shoots are cut off.
- Mulching. After planting, a layer of mulch (peat, humus, sawdust, straw) is applied to the soil.
In one place, the plant can grow up to 10 years, does not need a transplant. If the decorative bush does not grow, or flowers do not appear on it for more than 3 years, it is recommended to find a new place for it. It is better to carry out a transplant in the fall, so as not to disturb the vegetation process in the spring.
Watering
After planting in open ground, water the young plant well and do not touch it anymore for a week. When the root system is taken, increase the number of water procedures to 2 per week.
Honeysuckle stubbornly tolerates drought for some time, but such experiments are not in favor of the plant, affecting fruiting. In extreme heat, in addition to regular watering, spray green leaves with water, otherwise they will turn yellow.
Pruning
To create a hedge, prepare a wooden or metal support for a young plant. It can be a homemade grill or a mesh of a rope. First, the ornamental shrub reaches up. Having reached the desired length, its tops are cut, processed by garden var.
After trimming the length, lateral shoots increase the growth, which braid the support in width. Timely pruning forms a bush, helps to create a landscape design of a personal plot or any suburban structure.
Trim in early spring until there are no buds on the shoots. If you drag it out with this process, the decorative bush is under stress and this year may not bloom anymore (it needs time to recover).
Cut the shoots gradually - no more than a third in 1 procedure, otherwise such radical actions disrupt the growth and flowering of honeysuckle. Spend plant pruning in the fall when the flowers have fallen.
Diseases and harmful insects
Honeysuckle has a stable immunity, but harmful insects can still ruin plants. Especially dangerous:
- Spider mite. Drinks juice from the leaves. The plant turns yellow and wilts, foliage curls into a straw.
- Powdery Mildew A white coating appears on the stem and leaves.
- Plant aphids. The insect infects stems and leaves, covers them with white moss.
With such manifestations, plants are treated with fungicides. To avoid diseases, it is better to organize preventive treatment in a timely manner.
More information about diseases and pests of honeysuckle can be found in the next article.
Disease prevention
To maintain the health of the shoots and strengthen the root system, follow these preventive measures:
- Remove weeds in a timely manner.
- Do not transplant the plant from place to place.
- Use top dressing, mineral and organic fertilizers.
- Do not breed moisture and do not keep honeysuckle in the shade.
- Mulch the soil.
- Install the vertical support at the same time as the seedlings are planted.
- Respond promptly when symptoms of the disease appear.
Gardeners reviews about German honeysuckle
Marina, 32 years old, housewife, Lyubertsy. I have a fence surrounded by decorative honeysuckle in the country. In winter, nothing special, but in the summer I can’t see enough of such beauty. The flowers are voluminous, richly pink in color, smell magically. The plant is absolutely unpretentious, I water it 2 times a week and I don’t know any troubles. The only thing, in the fall, as if on command, all the flowers fall. It remains only to wait for the next beauty next summer.
Svetlana, 45 years old, economist, Old Crimea. At our dacha, honeysuckle grows like a weed. I didn’t really water it, but she surrounded the whole arbor. I found a loophole and went upstairs. At first I struggled with this, I wanted to plant a place with grapes, but then I looked and it became a pity to cut off such beauty. Now in the arbor there is a shadow and smells nice. In summer, only there we spend free time in the country. It is a pity that only flowers fall in autumn, and the aroma quickly dissipates.
Karina, 35 years old, seller, Saratov. We live on the ground floor in a multi-storey building. There are bars on the windows, like in a prison. I thought for a long time how to disguise them and hide from prying eyes from the street. The mother-in-law prompted the idea. I bought a honeysuckle and landed in the front garden in front of the window. The bush reached for 3 months before the trellis. The first year is still so-so, and in the second a real hedge turned out. I am satisfied with the result. The plant is unpretentious, periodically watering and that's it. Fragrance and flowers are gorgeous.
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Curly honeysuckle is a decorative bush that has become a fresh solution to landscape designs. Not only that, the plant smells nice, and during the growing season pleases with its lush buds.