Honeysuckle, Lonicera Sp.

Day 259: If I'd taken a minute to think about it, I would have realized why the nectar level in the hummingbird feeders wasn't dropping as rapidly as it was two weeks ago. The Honeysuckle (Lonicera) had come into bloom! My plant climbs up one corner of the garage where it generally goes unnoticed until some point when I step out in the back yard and am assailed with a waft of sweet scent. It's leggy and ragged, but then, I knew it would be like that when I planted it, and it should be noted that I did not plant it for myself; I planted it for the hummers. My "landscaping" (a term which is laughably inappropriate when discussing my yard) is like that: tatty, not structured in the least, floriferous but undisciplined, yet purposeful in its chaos. Call it my botanical "junk drawer," filled with useful things all tangled up with one another: cabled shrubby habitat, nuts-and-bolts nectar producers, twist-tie pollinator attractors and the occasional "why did I save this" item which never seems to get tossed. There's probably something in it which would suffice to patch a leak, connect two parts, fill a gap, take care of any except the most major repair. And there are even some things in it which improve on the existing measures...like Honeysuckle, drawing the hummers away from the sugar water in the feeders.

Honeysuckle Vine

Day 251: While we're waiting for an expert's analysis of the latest botanical mystery (and trust me, it's a doozy!), let's stop to smell the roses...or in this case, the Honeysuckle. This showy cultivar got off to a bad start. Its first full summer at the corner of my garage was droughty and dry, and although it suffered under my customary lax husbandry, it survived. The following year, it was plagued with aphids (not an uncommon affliction in honeysuckles) and lost all its new growth to their predation. Its recovery was slow, but for several years, it only bore a few flowers. This year, it's gone mad under our early unseasonably moist and cool conditions, spilling from the top of its trellis in a cascade of brilliant orange panicles, inviting hummingbirds and scenting the air with sweetness now that the temperatures have risen.

Honeysuckle

Day 256: It's taken a decade for a commercially-grown Honeysuckle vine to establish at the corner of my garage, a fact I can only attribute to poor soil, although I've seen the wild version root in some pretty unlikely locations. I had visions of a paradise for hummingbirds when I planted it, but in its first few years, it put on only a few blossoms and fell prey to some critter which mined the leaves. I was on the verge of pulling it out, possibly moving it to a new location until it surprised me this year by putting on a spectacular show of bright orange blooms. Nothing says "summer" quite like Honeysuckle after a rain shower!