Common Name: Japanese honeysuckle
Type: Vine
Family: Caprifoliaceae
Zone: 4 to 9
Height: 15.00 to 20.00 feet
Spread: 3.00 to 6.00 feet
Bloom Time: May to frost
Bloom Description: White aging to pale yellow
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Dry to medium
Maintenance: Medium
Flower: Showy, Fragrant
Leaf: Colorful
Attracts: Birds, Hummingbirds, Butterflies
Fruit: Showy
Tolerate: Deer, Drought, Black Walnut
Culture
Easily grown in average, dry to medium, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Tolerates drought. Decreased flowering occurs as amount of shade increases. Adapts to wide range of soils. Prefers moist, loamy soils. When used as a ground cover, 2-3 plants per square yard should be sufficient, and plants may be cut back hard (i.e., sheared close to the ground with an elevated lawn mower) in late winter to control growth and to remove dead undergrowth.
Best foliage color (golden veins) in full sun.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Lonicera japonica is a vigorous, deciduous, twining vine which typically grows 15-30'. Extremely fragrant, slender, tubular, two-lipped, pure white flowers age to light yellow. Flowers appear from May to frost and give way to black berries which mature in late summer to fall. Attractive oval, dark green foliage. Perhaps the most popular of the honeysuckles that are used as ground covers.
Genus name honors Adam Lonitzer (1528-1586), German botanist, the author of an herbal (Kreuterbuch) many times reprinted between 1557 and 1783.
Specific epithet means of Japan.
'Aureoreticulata', sometimes commonly called goldnet honeysuckle. is noted for its unusual golden reticulated oval leaves (to 3" long) that are green with gold netting.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. This vine can be quite invasive, and can rapidly cover and literally suffocate shrubs or small trees if allowed to climb on them.
Uses
Not recommended. It is a dreadful weed.