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.
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