Their scent may be as sweet as honey, but for many gardeners, honeysuckles have a bad name.
“Some species of honeysuckle shrubs and vines are extremely invasive in the Midwest,” said Spencer Campbell, Plant Clinic manager at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle.
“They’ve escaped from gardens into natural areas where they choke out native plants.”
That has led some concerned gardeners to avoid all kinds of honeysuckle. “That’s a shame, because some honeysuckles are good garden plants,” Campbell said. “But you need to choose them very carefully to make sure you aren’t planting a problem.”
In the Grand Garden at the Arboretum, a vining cultivar trademarked as Peaches and Cream
(Lonicera periclymenum ‘Inov 86’) climbs a huge trellis along with clematis and wisteria. It has exuberant confetti-like scarlet and white blooms in summer. Yellow honeysuckle (Lonicera reticulata), a native Midwestern species also known as grape honeysuckle, grows in the Arboretum’s main courtyard. Neither is considered invasive.
Yet nearby in the Arboretum’s woodlands, tree collections and restored areas, staff and volunteers have spent decades resolutely removing other species of honeysuckle that are choking out native plants and disrupting ecosystems. The most widespread invasive species are Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) and Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), both of which cannot be legally sold in Illinois. The Midwest Invasive Plant Network (mipn.org) also lists a number of other invasive honeysuckle species, all native to Eurasia.
Most of them are large shrubs that grow well in the shade of tall trees. “Wildflowers and oak seedlings can’t compete with honeysuckles,” Campbell said. Their bullying nature makes Eurasian honeysuckles the worst invasive shrub problem in the Chicago region’s natural areas after buckthorn.
These shrubs were originally brought to North America for ornamental purposes and still grow in many gardens. Birds that eat their berries distribute the seeds in the woods.
If you have a large shrub with leaves that grow in opposite pairs along its stems and fragrant white, yellow, pink or red flowers in late spring or summer, it may be some kind of honeysuckle. Consult experts such as the Plant Clinic (mortonarb.org/plant-clinic) to identify it and determine whether it is an invasive species. “Honeysuckles can be hard to tell apart,” Campbell said.
Gardeners don’t need to give up these shrubs’ sweet scent altogether, he said, but they need to be sure not to plant invasive types. Before you decide on a honeysuckle, search the Arboretum’s website (mortonarb.org/search-plants) to make sure you choose a species that is not invasive and to learn about its growing habits. For example, the native trumpet honeysuckle vine (Lonicera sempervirens) is not invasive, but it is an aggressive grower. “It needs a gardener who is handy with pruners,” he said.
You can also consider bush-honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera), a native shrub that is not a honeysuckle at all, despite its confusing common and botanical names. It has early summer flowers on a vigorous, low-growing shrub that poses no threat to natural ecosystems.
For tree and plant advice, contact the Plant Clinic at The Morton Arboretum (630-719-2424, mortonarb.org/plant-clinic, or plantclinic@mortonarb.org). Beth Botts is a staff writer at the Arboretum.