Monday, June 26, 2017

Honeysuckle

For thirteen years we lived in semi-rural western New Jersey.  I say "semi-rural" because we lived in a town of about 18,000 in a neighborhood of 1950's tract houses on tiny lots.  Not as tiny as the lot I grew up on right outside of NYC, but small nonetheless.

We were surrounded by fields.  Soybean fields and corn fields.  When you drove along those country roads this time of year the air was sweet with the scent of the wild honeysuckle.  It is one of my favorite scent memories.  The honeysuckle just grew wild all along the road sides.  I haven't yet seen it here in Maine, but I live in the woods, not near any fields.

Here is a photo I found online of wild honeysuckle







When we moved to Maine and bought this house, there was a trellis on the front of the house with a honeysuckle planted in front of it.  That first summer it really didn't do much, and it had no scent.  And since I didn't like the idea of a trellis on the front of the house, we took the honeysuckle out and I walked a ways into the woods and just threw it!  

Fast forward thirteen years.  We have done a lot of tree clearing to build a yard, a garage, and a garden.  Just a few years ago we cut down more trees to give the garden more sun.  And bam!!!

This grew

Right where I threw it.  It must have grown a bit each year in the shade, but once the full sun came along it just took off.  This year it is even beginning to cling to the big rock.  I'm not sure if I will at some point regret leaving this here, but it is pretty although it is scentless.



I think I will add REAL honeysuckle to my list of plants to get for my yard.  I wonder if it will grown here?

1 comment:

  1. Nothing smells sweeter than to walk by honeysuckle on a summer's night.

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