Coral Honeysuckle

Why it works here

Coral red trumpet flowers with yellow throats, two inches long, in clusters at the branch tips, spring through summer and often much longer here. Hummingbirds are the whole reason to plant it. It is a nectar plant they will cross a yard for, and every source from UF down says so. Butterflies and bees work it too, it is the larval host for the spring azure butterfly and the snowberry clearwing moth, and the red berries in late summer feed cardinals and other songbirds. Now the two honest parts. One, it is not fragrant. People expect honeysuckle to smell, and the sweet smelling one is the invasive Japanese honeysuckle. Two, this is a Florida native but it is not a Treasure Coast native. Its wild range stops around Volusia and Sarasota. IRC recommends it for gardens all the way to the Keys and I use it here, but I want you to know you are planting it south of where it grows wild.

Care

Give it something to climb from day one: a trellis, an arbor, a fence, a mailbox post. Without support UF says it turns into a weak sprawling shrub. Plant it in full sun with a little organic matter in the hole and mulch the root zone, because this one does not want bone dry sand. Water through the first year. It is slow to start and fast after. The saying is first year it sleeps, second year it creeps, third year it leaps. Prune it once a year after the main bloom to keep it where you want it.

Common problems

Buying Japanese honeysuckle by mistake. That one is a Category I invasive and on the state noxious weed list. The tell is easy: Japanese has white to yellow fragrant flowers, hairy leaves, and black berries. Ours has red unscented flowers, smooth leaves, and red berries.

Aphids on the new growth. Hose them off and let the ladybeetles work. No spray.

Powdery mildew and leaf spots in a wet, crowded spot. Give it air and keep the overhead irrigation off it.

Sprawl. UF calls it aggressive and says trim it every year. It is not invasive, it is just a vine doing what vines do.