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| Pics taken on the North side of El Presidio |
My feature plant this month is the Coral Honeysuckle. Tucsonans LOVE this vine for the colorful blooms during our spring season. A slow growing plant for me at El Presidio, but one that has recently produced several flowers off the vine. This Coral Honeysuckle has been slow to grow on the North side of our building. It receives some sun but not the scalding hot temps of the Western side.
I'm not crazy about the vine as it doesn't perform well over the entire year and I like plants that will produce either green leaves or flowers all year round. A resident wanted to try this vine out and so we did. It needs excellent morning sun with some shade from the intense summer sun. But during the summer it looks ragged and I wasn't crazy about it all. However with spring here, the vine has grown some and the flowers provide some welcome color.
There are better Honeysuckles out there for our Tucson area and they are important as they attract a lot of hummingbirds and butterflies to our gardens. Mexican Honeysuckle is your best choice for the Tucson area and enjoys full sun. It's not fussy about soil and is fairly drought tolerant. Make sure the soil has good drainage. If you're interested more about this type of vine, check out Hall's Honeysuckle.This is your best bet but there are other choices out there. Ask your local gardener and you'll find a variety of Honeysuckle as a vine or bush to suite your needs. More tomorrow....
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Beautiful Honeysuckle. Here in Sweden, they actually seem to have a native, though I've never seen how or should I say what pollenates them. I'm use to hummingbirds and they don't live here.
ReplyDeleteBack in Anza we had a gray blue leafed vatiety which was native and had small creamy white flowers, not overly striking as yours above. Amazingly the Hummingbirds went for this also. Clearly more than outrageously red colours attracts the little hummers.
I'm curious, is it necessary there in Tucson to plant the Coral Honeysuckle in the more shady areas like the pic above shows ? Also if you have had difficulty with leaf and flower drop during hotter periods, have you tried inoculating it with a good VAM mix and feeding it with worm castings ?
It's lovely. I can't wait to see my new one bloom.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
it does produce some wonderful color, though. really nice!
ReplyDeleteI agree with how you feel about it not being the best performer year round, but the blossoms are surely beautiful. In South Carolina we had miles(slight exaggeration)of honeysuckle around our yard and it smelled like heaven. Happy Friday!
ReplyDeleteMagpie gave me a mexican Honeysuckle for my hummers!
ReplyDeleteMam też wiciokrzew w swoim ogródku. Pewno nie tą odmianę , ale spisuje się wspaniale. Kwiatki Twojego są bardzo ładne. Pozdrawiam.
ReplyDeleteI also have a honeysuckle in your garden. Certainly not this variety, but is doing great. Your flowers are very nice. Yours.
I love honeysuckle for the lovely scent and the birds and butterflies it attracts. It is true though that it has a fairly short window of looking beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI love honeysuckle especially when the leaves and flowers wind their way through trellises. The flowers are good for attracting moths too! The Coral honeysuckle is a beautiful colour and lovely photos!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful color on those flowers.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many plants that love our spring but wilt in the summer heat. I'm working on combining those plants with ones that will disguise them when they don't look their best.