Coral Honeysuckle

Description

Botanical Name:  Lonicera sempervirens

Common Name:  Coral Honeysuckle, Trumpet Honeysuckle, Woodbine

Description:  Beautiful, well-behaved, semi-evergreen vine native to Florida. The flowers are a red/pinkish/yellow color, bloom heavy in mid-spring then off and on through the rest of the warm season. The flowers are loved by the hummers, butterflies, bees, and have special value to bumble bees. Birds, especially cardinals, eat the little berries. This beauty can grow in sun to part shade. It really likes morning sun/afternoon shade. If it doesn’t bloom much, it probably is in too much shade. Likes the usual moist, well-drained soil. Can be used as a vine to grow up trees, trellises, arbors, etc, and will grow about 15 to 20′ long. It attaches itself by twining. Can also be grown as a cool groundcover. I always suggest using landscape pins to stake down the vining stems will it gets established as a groundcover. After it flowers, the red berries show up that attract quail, Purple Finch, Goldfinch, Hermit Thrush, and American Robin. It is a larvae host to the Spring Azure and Snowberry Clearwing Moth. On top of all of that, the plant has medicinal value.

Likes to grow in clay, loam, or sandy soils that are dry to moist, well-drained acidic to slightly alkaline. Its native habitat is upland hardwood forests, floodplains, and secondary woods.

If you want a honeysuckle vine for your garden, this is a great choice. Please, whatever you do, do not plant the non-native, highly invasive Japanese honeysuckle.

Not salt tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water. Low/no tolerance of salty wind or direct salt spray.

This plant in 1-gallon containers is 8-15″ tall.

This plant in 3-gallon containers 1.5 – 3′ tall.

Plant Lore: Coral honeysuckle’s bark exfoliates.

Florida Hardiness Zones 8 – 10