The MGS Forum
Plants for mediterranean gardens => Climbers => Topic started by: John on July 13, 2011, 11:46:44 PM
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This species is widespread through the Med. and common on Crete where I have seen it many times. This picture was taken on our trip to catalonia with the UK MGS branch. It is a first rate Lonicera species and very well suited to the mediterranean climate though it needs the right conditions to thrive.
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Lonicera etrusca, unlike some showy honeysuckles, is fragrant. There are several selected forms in cultivation. W J Bean, the pre-eminent writer on trees and shrubs, said "at its best it is perhaps the most gorgeous of all honeysuckles".
Incidentally, if you look up this species on The Plant List (http://www.theplantlist.org/), that splendid newly internet-published collaboration between Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden which has amalgamated all the main taxonomic checklists to provide a working list of names of all flowering plants, you'll find that Lonicera etrusca isn't listed. Usually that means that the name is not currently accepted by taxonomists. But in this case it means that the complex algorithms which were used in amalgamating several different massive databases, in checking to eliminate duplications or mis-spellings, somehow thought that "etrusca" was a mis-spelling of "retusa". I'm told that in this invaluable work-in-progress the algorithms have already been more finely tuned in a way which should reduce this sort of occurence.
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John
I am sure I saw this Lonicera growing from a number of rocks at the side of the castle in Miravet (on the Ebre river), very exposed to all the elements of course. Very beautiful, small. I'd like to try it in my place. How should I proceed? Cuttings, seeds, and when?
David
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John
I'd like to try it in my place. How should I proceed? Cuttings, seeds, and when?
David
Hi David,
In my experience the best way is by planting rooted offsets in late Autum while they are still quite dormant [Summer dormancy].
Second option is by cuttings during winter.
Take in considaration the fact that it does'nt like to be over watered.
Oron
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Oron
Many thanks for your advice, which I'll follow. After submitting the question I wondered if I would receive a rap over the knuckles for pillaging species in the wild. I'll be frugal of course.
Regards
David
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This honeysuckle is highly fragrant, just what I need.
Does anybody know if it flowers for a long time in a hot climate and will it grow up a tree?
I have an elderly black plum tree. The honeysuckle would have to start it's climb in deep shade. It wouldn't see any sun for about 12-15 feet.
Daisy :)
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It would like the shade to start with, Daisy, and should do well in your climate, flowering for a few weeks in spring and then quite possibly again after the autumn rains had started it back into growth. Like many honeysuckles it is very strong-growing!
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Re propagation...
I have found honeysuckles to respond well to layering.
In two different gardens in the UK, I have found they liked the leafy detritus in gutters over which they were romping. So much so, in fact, that when I was tidying them up, my pulling-up the layered stems emptied the gutter entirely - all the leaf litter was matted together into a dense semi-cylinder of roots over a metre long!
These transplanted very readily.
That was not with L. etrusca, which likes less water, but nonetheless noteworthy.
Hence, if you are considering 'plundering the countryside', you could try putting a flat-bottomed stone on a stem at ground level, and do it at any time. Then come back a few months later and see if it has begun rooting. When it has, sever it and plant it in your garden ASAP (pruning back the top growth to match the amount of roots). I think you could do that at any time of the year, though you may have to wait more/less time for rooting to happen. It is not so much a case of reducing the risk with cuttings (low); more a case of being able to plant in-position straight away.
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I discovered a clump of what I assume to be L. etrusca growing in a rather forgotten patch of flowerbed among gazanias and a few sparse, sickly shrubs. It looks like it seeded in at the base of a shrub and was always trimmed out, but then the shrub died (this was a Euonymous japonica var., as far as I could make out from the dried stems), and the patch was not visited again until after the Lonicera had a chance to get going.
I was pleased to find it - we have a lot of L. implexa growing about the place (also a very pleasant and well-behaved subject) but not etrusca, so I dug it up to transplant into one of the native plant areas. What I found curious is that, rather than a central rootstock/main stem, the many small, twiggy stems came apart, attached to almost tuberous little bits of root. Is this their usual habit or has some bug got into the roots to make them swell up like that? Or could it be over-watering? It was in a place where it got a sprinkling every other night during hot weather.
Either way, I have put all the bits into individual pots, so let's hope they succeed; they must be about 15 or 20 altogether and will be a great addition to the garden.
Re: honeysuckles in general - I have also had good experiences with both layering and cutting, for what it's worth; specifically with L. japionica and "Dropmore Scarlet" but am sure most will respond favourably.