How to Grow and Care for Honeysuckle

How would you feel if beautiful butterflies and hummingbirds welcomed you every summer morning just when you stepped outside? Speaking from experience, it’s like walking into a paradise. There’s nothing better than pouring a cup of coffee and strolling through a garden full of hundreds of butterflies in striking colors and hearing the melodious chirps of hummingbirds – it makes you feel like they are pampering you and your entire garden area. So how do you attract all these butterflies and hummingbirds? Try growing honeysuckle plants. With blazing red and gold blooms and little fruit-like berries, honeysuckles bring traffic to your garden by attracting bees, butterflies and hummingbirds to float around your garden landscape. Starting in spring, the intensely fragrant flowers of honeysuckle vines are in display throughout the summer and into fall. Honeysuckle vines are best grown along a fence, a trellis, an archway, in containers or even as ground cover that prevents soil erosion. Honeysuckles should be planted after the last frost, early in the spring in a location that receives full sun to partial shade. Keep the plants 6 to 12 inches away from the climbing support and maintain a distance of 2 to 3 feet between each honeysuckle plant. For directional growth, tie the stems of vines to the support carefully with a soft nylon rope. Water thoroughly and apply mulch to protect the roots from freezing and keeping the soil moist. Never let the soil dry out totally. Water deeply, until the plants establish and show the sign of new growth. A recommended fertilizer and a little pruning would ensure bushy growth of your honeysuckle vines.