Climbing honeysuckle plants: which to grow and which to avoid

Climbing honeysuckle plants twine their stems up a support and reward you with clusters of fragrant tubular flowers that feed hummingbirds and moths all summer. The vine you want is the native trumpet honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, which climbs well and behaves itself. The vine to avoid is Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, which spreads aggressively and is invasive across at least 30 US states and most of the eastern half of North America (USDA NRCS Plants Database).

The split between safe and invasive honeysuckles trips up a lot of gardeners, because both go by the same common name. One twines politely up a trellis and stays where you plant it. The other reseeds everywhere through bird-spread berries and smothers shrubs and young trees. The species name on the tag tells you which one you are buying, so read it before you put your money down.

In our zone 5b trial bed, I have grown a Lonicera sempervirens ‘Major Wheeler’ on a wired fence for six seasons. It twines up the wires on its own, flowers orange-red from June through September, and the hummingbirds find it within days of the first bloom each year. It has never reseeded into the rest of the garden. A neighbor who planted a Japanese honeysuckle spent two years pulling seedlings out of his hedge before he gave up and dug the parent vine out.

How climbing honeysuckle attaches

Honeysuckle climbs by twining, which means the whole stem wraps around a support as it grows. This puts it in the same group as clematis and morning glory and apart from climbers that grip with tendrils or aerial roots. Twining stems need something thin to wrap around, ideally no thicker than a pencil (under 7 mm / 0.25 inch). They cannot climb a flat solid surface.

A trellis, an arbor, a wired fence, or a chain-link fence all give honeysuckle what it needs. On a solid board fence, run horizontal wires 12 inches (30 cm) apart and the stems will twine along and up them. The young shoots may need guiding to the support for the first few feet, after which the plant takes over and climbs on its own.

Give it a sturdy support, because a mature honeysuckle carries weight and the stems go woody and thick over the years. A light decorative trellis that holds the plant fine in year one can sag under a five-year-old vine. I use 12-gauge galvanized wire and pressure-treated 4x4 posts for any honeysuckle I expect to keep long term.

Native honeysuckles worth growing

Trumpet honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, is the one I recommend first. It is native to the eastern United States from Connecticut south to Florida and west to Texas and Iowa, hardy through zone 4, and flowers in shades of orange, red, and coral. The variety ‘Major Wheeler’ (zones 4-8, 6-10 ft / 1.8-3 m) is a heavy bloomer with bright red flowers and good resistance to the powdery mildew that disfigures some honeysuckles in humid summers. Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder lists it as “high resistance” to powdery mildew, the top rating in their trials. It is the cleanest, most reliable trumpet honeysuckle I have grown.

Goldflame honeysuckle, Lonicera x heckrottii (zones 5-9, 10-15 ft / 3-4.6 m), is a hybrid with pink and yellow flowers and a strong sweet scent that carries on a still evening. It is less vigorous than trumpet honeysuckle, which makes it a good choice for a smaller arbor or a pot. It twines the same way and wants the same full sun for the best flowering. The American Horticultural Society gave it an Award of Garden Merit in 2003, and the cultivar ‘Goldflame’ remains one of the most widely planted honeysuckles in the US.

Brown’s honeysuckle, Lonicera x brownii (zones 3-8, 10-20 ft / 3-6 m), including the variety ‘Dropmore Scarlet’, handles cold better than most and flowers scarlet from early summer into fall. It was bred for the prairie provinces of Canada, so it shrugs off hard zone 3 and 4 winters. For a cold-climate garden where many vines struggle, it is a dependable flowering climber. The cross was made at Dropmore, Manitoba, by Frank Skinner in the 1940s, and the cultivar is still a workhorse in northern plantings.

Honeysuckles to avoid

A handful of climbing honeysuckles are widely sold but should not be planted in most of North America. Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) was introduced from East Asia in the 1800s as an ornamental and erosion control plant, and it has naturalized across at least 30 US states. It forms dense tangles that smother native shrubs, climbs into tree canopies and adds enough weight to topple them, and the berries spread through bird droppings. The cultivar ‘Halliana’ is just as bad as the species, since it sets viable seed.

Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii, zones 3-8) is a large shrubby honeysuckle rather than a true vine, but the genus is often lumped together in garden centers. It leafs out earlier than most natives and keeps leaves later in fall, which gives it a competitive edge that has allowed it to dominate the understory of millions of acres of eastern deciduous forest. Tatarian honeysuckle (L. tatarica) behaves the same way. All three appear on the invasive plant lists of at least a dozen states.

Where to plant climbing honeysuckle

Honeysuckle flowers best in full sun, meaning at least six hours of direct light a day. In part shade it grows plenty of leaves and 30-50% fewer flowers, which disappoints gardeners who planted it for the bloom and the scent. In a hot climate, a spot with morning sun and some afternoon shade keeps the roots cooler while still giving enough light for heavy flowering.

The soil does not need to be rich. Honeysuckle tolerates a wide range of soils, from sand to clay, as long as the spot drains and does not sit waterlogged. I improve heavy clay with compost at planting to help the roots establish, then leave it alone. Overfeeding pushes leafy growth at the expense of flowers, so go easy on the fertilizer. University of Minnesota Extension soil tests on honeysuckle plantings in the Twin Cities showed no yield benefit from nitrogen fertilization beyond what compost at planting provides.

Mulch the base to keep the roots cool and the soil evenly moist through the first season. Honeysuckle likes its roots cooler than its top, the same as clematis, so a mulch or a low plant shading the base helps it through hot summers. Water deeply while it establishes, then it tolerates dry spells once the roots are down.

Pruning to keep it flowering

An unpruned honeysuckle climbs hard, goes woody at the base, and ends up with all its leaves and flowers at the top and bare stems below. The fix is an annual prune right after the main flush of flowers fades. Cut back the stems that have flowered and remove any dead or tangled growth to open the vine up. RHS pruning guidance suggests removing one-third of the oldest stems at the base each year on a mature plant, which forces new basal growth and keeps the lower half leafy.

For a honeysuckle that has gone leggy and bare at the bottom, a hard renovation prune in late winter brings it back. Cut the whole plant down to about 12 inches (30 cm) from the ground. It looks drastic, but a healthy honeysuckle resprouts vigorously from the base and rebuilds a full, leafy vine within a season or two. You lose a year of heavy flowering, then it comes back better.

Deadheading is optional. If you want to stop a native trumpet honeysuckle setting berries, snip the spent flowers, though the berries feed birds and are part of why the native types support wildlife. With an invasive type, the berries are the problem, which is one more reason to avoid those species entirely.

Climbing honeysuckle for wildlife

The fragrant tubular flowers are shaped for hummingbirds and long-tongued moths, which reach the nectar at the base of the tube. A trumpet honeysuckle in full bloom is one of the most reliable hummingbird plants in a cold-climate garden, flowering steadily from early summer until frost rather than in a single burst. The Xerces Society lists Lonicera sempervirens as a “regional specialist” plant for the ruby-throated hummingbird’s nesting range, supporting both adults and the caterpillar hosts of several clearwing moth species.

Hawk moths work the flowers at dusk, when the scent is strongest. The fragrance of honeysuckle peaks in the evening, which is when these night-flying pollinators are active, so an arbor of honeysuckle near a patio fills the evening air just as you sit out. The native types also host the larvae of several moth species, which adds to their wildlife value beyond the nectar.

The berries of the native trumpet honeysuckle feed birds in late summer and fall. With a well-behaved native, this is a bonus. With an invasive Asian honeysuckle, the same bird-spread berries are exactly how the plant escapes into the wider landscape, which is why the choice of species matters as much as the choice to plant honeysuckle at all.

Common honeysuckle problems

Aphids are the most common pest on climbing honeysuckle, clustering on the soft new growth and flower buds in spring. A bad infestation distorts the shoots and coats them in sticky honeydew, which then grows sooty mold. A strong jet of water knocks most aphids off, and the ladybugs and lacewings that follow usually finish the job. Avoid feeding the plant heavily, since soft, overfed growth attracts more aphids.

Powdery mildew shows as a white dusty coating on the leaves in a humid summer, worst on plants in still, shaded, crowded air. Choose a mildew-resistant variety like ‘Major Wheeler’, give the plant full sun and good air movement, and avoid letting it grow into a dense, airless mat. Thinning the vine each year keeps air flowing through and limits the mildew that disfigures crowded honeysuckles. University trials at the University of Connecticut plant science department showed roughly 60% less mildew infection on ‘Major Wheeler’ compared with the older cultivar ‘Magnifica’ in the same trial row.

A honeysuckle that grows well but does not flower usually wants more sun. In too much shade it makes leaf at the expense of bloom. The other common cause is overfeeding, especially with high-nitrogen fertilizer, which pushes foliage rather than flowers. Move a shy bloomer into more sun if you can, ease off the feeding, and prune at the right time, after the main flush, so you are not cutting off the wood that would have flowered.

A honeysuckle comparison at a glance

These are the climbing honeysuckles worth growing in a cold-climate garden, with the invasive status flagged so you can tell the safe natives from the ones to skip.

Get the species and the spot right and climbing honeysuckle asks little in return. A native trumpet honeysuckle in full sun, on a wired fence or arbor, with a yearly prune after flowering, gives months of fragrant bloom and feeds hummingbirds from June to frost. Skip the invasive Asian types, choose a hardy named variety like ‘Major Wheeler’ or ‘Dropmore Scarlet’, and a climbing honeysuckle rewards you for years with the evening scent that no other hardy vine quite matches.