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Honeysuckle is a well-known garden shrub, some varieties of which produce edible fruits. However, many gardeners grow these plants not for harvesting, but as a decoration for their personal plot. One of these species is Brown's honeysuckle, which combines a fairly large number of decorative varieties.
Description of Brown's Honeysuckle
Brown's honeysuckle (Lonicera brownii) is a hybrid species. It was obtained by crossing evergreen honeysuckle (L. sempervirens) and rough (L. hirsuta). Various varieties of this plant are widely used in ornamental gardening.
Brown's honeysuckle is an excellent way to decorate a nondescript fence
Photos and descriptions of Brown's honeysuckle will be presented below. The table below shows its main characteristics:
Parameter | Value |
Plant type | Climbing semi-evergreen shrub |
Escapes | Liana, green in young shoots, then becomes light brown, often with a purple tint. Grows up to 2.5 m |
Leaves | Leathery, dense, oval-elongated, with a rounded end and short petioles. The leaf plate is dark green above, below it has a bluish tint. Leaves are opposite, often grow together with each other, forming a solid rounded corolla around the stem |
Root system | Arboreal, powerful, highly branched |
Flowers | Bells with a long tubular part, large, up to 6 cm. The main colors are red, orange, yellow and their various shades. Flowers are collected in whorls in bunches of 5-35 pcs. |
Flowering time | June-October |
Fruit | The berries are spherical, bright red. Inedible |
Seeds | Small (up to 3 mm), black, ripen inside berries in October-November |
Appointment | Vertical gardening, ornamental gardening |
Brown Honeysuckle Varieties
Thanks to the work of breeders from different countries, many varieties of Brown's honeysuckle have been bred. Some of them are discussed below.
Brown Blanche Sandman's Honeysuckle
The variety is an evergreen liana, the length of which can reach 3.5 m. The shoots are quite powerful, reddish, curly, strongly leafy. Their annual growth can be up to 1 m.
Leaves are oval, bright green, leathery. Flowering begins in June and lasts until mid-July. The flowers of Brown Blanche Sandman's honeysuckle are large, bright, crimson-crimson, the inner part is yellow. The variety is excellent for growing as a hedge, for vertical landscaping of fences, walls, arches and other decorative elements of the garden.
Brown Honeysuckle Fuchsia
Brown's Honeysuckle Fuchsia is widely used for decorating vertical elements of landscape architecture, as well as an intertwining plant for various fences, fences, trellises. Shoots of this variety of honeysuckle grow up to 2 m.
Leaves are often accrete, dark green, dense. Flowering occurs in June and lasts until early July.The flowers are large, bright, crimson-pink, orange inside.
Brown's Honeysuckle Golden Trumpet
Brown's Honeysuckle Golden Trumpet is a bush of climbing shoots that grow up to 3 m.The color of the flowers is bright yellow, with a slight reddish tint.
This variety of honeysuckle begins to bloom in June. From July to September, bright crimson berries ripen on the bushes, which retains its decorative effect for a long time. Brown's Honeysuckle Golden Trumpet is used for vertical landscaping and for creating various garden compositions.
Brown's Honeysuckle Dropmore Scarlet
Brown's honeysuckle Dropmore Scarlet is a long-known variety, bred in the middle of the last century by Canadian breeders. Belongs to semi-evergreen shrubs, curly shoots of which can grow up to 2 m. Leaves are wide, large, accrete, green, slightly bluish below.
The Brown honeysuckle variety Dropmore Scarlet begins to bloom in June and lasts until early fall. Flowers are large, up to 5 cm, bell-shaped with a narrow tubular corolla, orange-red. Since August, spherical red berries about 1 cm in size begin to ripen in their place, which makes the shrub even more decorative.
A small overview video of this variety of Brown's honeysuckle can be viewed at the link:
Planting and caring for Brown's honeysuckle
Brown's honeysuckle is not distinguished by increased demands on agricultural technology. Planting and caring for it is quite simple, and the resistance of many varieties to frost, diseases and pests makes them possible to grow them even in regions with not the most favorable climates.
Landing dates
The best time to plant Brown's honeysuckle outdoors is in autumn, when the plant has finished growing and is calm. At the same time, from the moment of planting until the onset of frost, at least a month should remain.This time is quite enough for the plant to take root in a new place and prepare for winter.
Brown honeysuckle seedlings are best purchased in containers
If Brown's honeysuckle is planted with a seedling with ZKS, then planting can be done at any time of the year, excluding winter.
Selection and preparation of the landing site
Brown's honeysuckle is very undemanding to the place of growth and soil. Often it is planted based on the requirements of landscape design, and not optimal conditions for growth. In illuminated areas, Brown's honeysuckle grows especially well, however, the plant tolerates partial shade well, therefore, it is often planted along fences or near the wall of the house. The shrub has no special requirements for the composition of the soil, but it is preferable that the soil be loose, sandy loam or loamy, breathable, neutral or slightly acidic. You should not choose sandy, heavy clay and very swampy areas for planting Brown's honeysuckle.
As a rule, no special soil preparation is performed. Planting holes for Brown's honeysuckle seedlings are prepared immediately before work. Their size depends on the age and volume of the root system. Saplings 5-7 years old need pits about 1 m deep, for younger ones, a deepening of 0.25-0.3 m is enough.If the soil is not quite suitable, then it is better to prepare a nutritious soil for backfilling, consisting of turf soil, peat and sand mixed in a ratio of 3: 1: 1. It's a good idea to add a little superphosphate and any potash fertilizer to the soil (1-2 tsp.l.), as well as 1 glass of wood ash.
Large planting holes are not required to plant Brown's honeysuckle
Landing rules
Before planting Brown's honeysuckle seedlings, it is imperative to pour 5-10 cm of drainage into the harvested planting pits - gravel, expanded clay or medium-sized crushed stone. After that, you need to add a layer of nutrient soil, on which the root system of the seedling is placed on top. The roots need to be straightened and carefully covered with soil, periodically compacting it to prevent the formation of voids. Gradually, the hole is completely filled, making sure that the root collar is at ground level.
After planting, the root zone of the shrub must be watered abundantly, and then mulched with peat or humus. This will prevent rapid evaporation of moisture from the soil.
How far to plant Brown's honeysuckle
The optimum distance between two adjacent Rust of Brown's honeysuckle is 1.8-2 m. However, the bushes are often planted at a closer distance if the density of the hedge needs to be increased.
Brown's honeysuckle hedge looks very attractive
You should not plant neighboring honeysuckle seedlings closer than 1.5 from each other, since the vines of neighboring plants can strongly intertwine with each other, and this will create certain difficulties when pruning or other care.
Watering and feeding
Brown's honeysuckle is sensitive to drought, so regular soil moisture is a must when caring for this shrub. After planting, the seedling must be intensively moistened several times so that its roots take root faster. After that, the shrub is watered depending on the weather conditions. In the heat, this should be done daily, pouring 10 liters of water into the root zone of the bush. Watering should be done in the evening so that the water evaporates less under the influence of sunlight.
Brown's honeysuckle is very fond of sprinkling
Sprinkling of bushes can be done at the same time, Brown's honeysuckle responds very well to this procedure.
It is not necessary to feed the shrub in the first few years after planting. During this period of the life of honeysuckle, those nutrients and fertilizers that were added to the soil when planting seedlings are quite enough. However, after this period, feeding is necessary. Flowering and fruiting shrubs deplete the soil quite intensively, so the supply of nutrients in it needs to be periodically replenished. It is best to do this several times during the season:
- Early spring... At this time, root feeding of Brown's honeysuckle is carried out with nitrogen-containing fertilizers (nitrophoska, azofoska).
- Summer, after flowering... At this time, it is advisable to feed Brown's honeysuckle with organic matter (humus, rotted manure), evenly introducing them into the root zone.
- Autumn, after fruiting... At this time, you need to use potash and phosphorus complex mineral fertilizers so that the shrub regains strength after fruiting and strengthens before wintering. Nitrogen-containing fertilizers and fresh organic matter are not used at this time, so as not to stimulate excessive shoot formation. Young shoots growing at this time will not have time to woody by winter and will most likely freeze and die from frost.
Pruning
Since Brown's honeysuckle vines are mainly used as braiding plants, they are not pruned in the early years so that they grow in length. Only dried and broken shoots are removed. After the vines reach the required height, they are cut off, and the side shoots are bred along a trellis, mesh or fence.
Cut dry shoots regularly.
Starting from 6-7 years, Brown's honeysuckle must be periodically rejuvenated by cutting out older ones and growing young vines instead. So the plant will retain its decorative effect longer. This can be done in early spring, before the start of sap flow, or in the fall, after the bush has finished growing.
Winter hardiness of Brown's honeysuckle
Brown's honeysuckle has good frost resistance. If in the growing region the temperatures in winter do not fall below -20 ° C, then the vines can not even be removed from the trellises, it is enough to insulate the root zone with a thick layer of mulch from peat, humus or sawdust. In colder regions, the vines need to be removed from the base, laid on the ground and covered with a layer of fallen leaves, straw or spruce branches.
Breeding Brown's Honeysuckle
Brown's honeysuckle can be propagated by both seed and vegetative methods. Here's a quick rundown of both methods.
Seeds: Sowing material is harvested from fully ripe berries, usually at the end of October. The easiest way to do this is by rubbing the fruit through a sieve. Peeled seeds must be stratified - kept for 1.5-2 months at a temperature of 0-4 ° C. Such a measure mimics the natural conditions of the wild and significantly increases germination. Sowing is done in spring, after the soil has thawed and warmed up to + 3-5 ° С. The seeds are evenly placed in the grooves and sprinkled with a layer of soil no more than 2 cm. In such conditions, the first shoots usually appear not earlier than September.
In special containers, greenhouses, seeds germinate much faster
There is a way to significantly speed up seed germination. To do this, they are germinated at home using mini-greenhouses, in which constant temperature and humidity parameters are maintained. Under these conditions, Brown's honeysuckle seeds germinate in 3-4 weeks.
Cutting, this vegetative method is used by ordinary gardeners more often than seed because it is simpler and more effective. There are several ways of cutting honeysuckle, of which winter is most often used, using lignified cuttings with planting before winter or early spring. You can also breed Brown's Honeysuckle in the summer with green cuttings cut from the current year's annual shoots. This plant is rooting pretty well.
Brown's honeysuckle is very easy to propagate by cuttings
In this case, the planted cuttings must be regularly moistened so that they quickly form their own root system. After the young seedlings grow up and get stronger, they can be transplanted to a permanent place.
Division of the bush. A heavily overgrown brown honeysuckle bush can be dug out of the ground and divided into several parts so that each of them contains a sufficient number of roots and several healthy shoots. Such delenki are planted as independent seedlings in separate planting pits.
Diseases and pests
Brown's honeysuckle is weakly susceptible to various kinds of diseases, since it has good immunity. However, sometimes it can be affected by certain diseases, mainly fungal. The most common causes of diseases are inappropriate growing conditions, disturbances in care, as well as some insect pests that are carriers of infectious agents.
- Powdery mildew... This is a fungal disease, which can be recognized by the characteristic white powdery bloom on the leaves and shoots. In the future, the affected areas of the crown turn black and die off. This disease often appears due to sudden cold snaps and damp weather. The affected shoots are cut off, and the bushes for prevention and treatment are treated with Tiovit or Chistotsvet.
- Brown spot... This fungal disease affects the aerial part of Brown's honeysuckle, and primarily the leaves.It can be recognized by its characteristic reddish spots on the leaf plate. Over time, the spots darken, and the leaves turn brown, dry out and fly around. Spores of the fungus overwinter in fallen leaves. In case of infection, all affected shoots must be cut and burned, and all fallen leaves must be removed. The shrub is treated with fungicides, for example, Bordeaux liquid or copper oxychloride (HOM preparations, Abiga-Peak, etc.).
- Ascochitosis... Another type of mottling that affects the leaves of Brown's honeysuckle. It is a fungal disease, determined by irregular gray spots with a black border. Over time, the spots merge, the leaves dry out and fall off. As a prophylaxis of fungal diseases, honeysuckle bushes are treated with fungicides. All infected shoots and fallen leaves containing fungal spores must be removed and burned.
- Mottling... One of the viral diseases of decorative forms of honeysuckle, which greatly spoils the appearance of shrubs. The causative agents of this disease are carried by nematodes - small parasitic worms that live in the soil. Getting rid of nematodes in the area is quite difficult. It is better to remove and burn the affected parts of the bush, and feed the plant itself with potash fertilizers. If the disease is started, then it is better to dig up the bush entirely and burn it, and completely abandon the planting of honeysuckle in this place.
In addition to the aforementioned nematodes, other pests can be found on Brown's honeysuckle. Here is some of them:
- Honeysuckle mite... It is a small sucking insect that feeds on leaf sap. It can be detected by the twisted leaves, inside which there is a spider masonry with mite eggs. Various acaricidal drugs are used against ticks, such as Confidor and Actellik.
Twisted and web-covered leaves are a sign of the presence of a pest.
- Honeysuckle aphid... You can notice this microscopic insect by the yellowed leaves, the juices of which feed on the aphids. Large accumulations of these insects severely deplete the shoots and are the reason for their weak growth, and sometimes wilting. The extreme leaves at the ends of the shoots are usually affected by the apical aphid; it is visually darker and has a gray color. To combat aphids, it is best to use various folk remedies, such as infusion of tansy, celandine or garlic. As a rule, a single application of them is quite enough to get rid of this pest.
Green aphids usually settle on the back of the leaves.
Conclusion
Brown's honeysuckle is an unpretentious and attractive ornamental plant that can decorate any home garden. Beautiful appearance, ease of care, resistance to diseases and pests, frost resistance - all these qualities are inherent in this plant. And this makes it one of the most popular shrubs used in ornamental gardening.
