October ANTI-Shrub of the Month-Honeysuckle

Ah, the smell of honeysuckle on a bright spring morning. And those cute little red berries in the fall that the birds love!

I met a guy a few years ago who told me honeysuckle was his favorite plant and rolled off a list of desirable traits. Along with the fragrant flowers he enjoyed in spring and the berries the birds loved in fall, his honeysuckle screened a busy street on one side and nosy neighbors on the other. He liked that his honeysuckle leafed out before his neighbor’s “fussy” plants and held onto its leaves in fall, thus providing even more privacy. The height of his mature “Honeysuckle Woods” worked great to block his neighbor’s two-story home from his swimming pool and patio. He stated how honeysuckle is hardy and drought-resistant. He even had a honeysuckle shrub trimmed into a tree shape near his driveway as a specimen tree. And to be honest, it looked great. Mature honeysuckle has nice bark and an open, vase-shaped structure. It takes sun or shade, poor or rich soils, and after hearing this guy list all the above traits, it ALMOST sounds like the perfect shrub.

This honeysuckle hedge screens a backyard from a busy road, but at great cost to our local environment. There are alternatives!

HOWEVER…remember that adage about if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is? Here we are paying for yet another mistake made by our plant-geek ancestors who brought the plant over for the very reasons mentioned above. In the 1800s, no one could foresee the detrimental results of such introductions to our native flora and fauna. Invasive honeysuckle is one of the Four Horsemen of the biological apocalypse in our area.

Honeysuckle is not just a problem in residential areas. Our green areas in parks or along roadways are infested with invasive bush honeysuckles, mainly Lonicera maackii (Amur) and Lonicera x bella (bella). There is also a woody vine form, Lonicera japonica, the Japanese honeysuckle that is just as highly invasive. This woody vine twines and climbs its way up and into other plants then smothers them.

Japanese honeysuckle (on left) is a vine that resembles vinca or periwinkle (on right), but with lighter green leaves and brown stems. Try to remove it when it’s small like this.

How do these invasives spread if no one is selling them or planting them? Because of those “cute, little, red berries.” Birds eat them, “take care of business” in trees and along fence lines and spread the seeds even further. Street trees, parks, and roadsides end up with what I call “honeysuckle skirts” around their tree trunks. Mowers and weed whackers eventually can’t penetrate the volunteer seedlings, and the honeysuckle grows taller and broader, enclosing entire areas into a dense pseudo-forest. It’s hard to find a natural area near St. Louis that doesn’t have a monoculture understory of bush honeysuckle. If you do, it’s only because of the relentless, never-ending persistence of volunteers and staff who are battling this war every season and still losing ground. A significant part of the battle is educating people that there are alternatives that will provide fragrant flowers, berries for wildlife, and ever-coveted privacy without the detrimental costs to the environment.

So here we are.

Shrub honeysuckle is the last plant to lose leaves in the fall.

I highlight an “Anti” plant in the fall for several reasons. First, fall is the best time to try to control invasives, and second, fall is when their fruits ripen, which contributes to their spread, so it’s essential to address your invasive problem if you have them when the timing is right.

The best method used in the industry to help control woody invasives is the “cut and paint” method, where a woody plant is cut down to a short stump and then “painted” or sprayed with herbicide. Only spraying the leaves on something as robust and vigorous as honeysuckle wastes time, energy, and product. Although you might see some spotted leaves, the plant is secretly laughing at you. The spray doesn’t seem to faze it, and the plant returns even stronger next season to spite you. This is especially true when done in the spring when plants put most of their energy into moving sugars and nutrients, etc., from their roots up and out into new leaves and flowers.

Spraying a freshly cut stump instead of the leaves is like a lethal injection and puts the herbicide directly into the phloem of the plant’s trunk (just under the bark.), where all the transportation of sugars and nutrients is moving down to the roots. In fall, plants, being great planners, start storing things down in their roots for winter and shutting leaves down for the season. If you wait until leaves have turned in fall and start spraying them, it’s too late, but until that plant has gone totally dormant, you can still cut the stumps down, treat them, and have more success. Another benefit of applying herbicide to the stumps only is that it puts the product EXACTLY where it’s needed, eliminating the need to “broadcast spray” and risk damage or death to desirable plants and more harm to the environment.

If you want to avoid herbicide at all costs, you’re going to have to DIG UP THE PLANT, ROOTS AND ALL. Just cutting them down and leaving the stumps and root system is even funnier to the plant then spraying only the leaves with herbicide. It will come back twice as vigorous and determined. Getting rid of the plant before it grows into a monster is a lot easier. Both the Japanese honeysuckle vine and the bush honeysuckle have light green, simple leaves arranged in an opposite pattern along the stems. Bush honeysuckle has light, tan-colored stems and bark that is slightly peeling on mature plants. Japanese honeysuckle vine has a darker cinnamon-brown colored stem. Sometimes when you try to pull it, the “outer stem” pulls off revealing a bright green “inner stem” that holds tight.

**Bush honeysuckle is easy to pull when young, but it resembles vinca vine and can be easily missed.**

Whatever control method you choose, after ridding yourself of honeysuckle and vowing to keep any new infestations at bay, it’s time to consider alternative replacements. There are “good” honeysuckles, even native ones, for our area if you love that fragrance. Lonicera flava, or L. sempervirens are vines with fragrant flowers that behave well in the garden. If you desire the screening properties or berries of a shrub form, here’s a list to start with.

–Euonymus americana-strawberry bush and Eastern wahoo, Euonymus atropurpureus, are two native alternatives with red fall color and unique berries. Both are well-behaved in the garden, unlike their Asian cousin, last year’s Anti-Shrub of the Month, burning bush.

October ANTI-Shrub of the Month-Burning bush (garden-lou.com)

–Chokeberry-Aronia: Another native with excellent fall color and tart berries the birds love. There are cultivars available like Aronia arbutifolia ‘Brilliantissima’ or Aronia melanocarpa’ Viking.’ Aronia can grow to 8′.

–Ilex verticillata-Winterberry A pale yellow for fall color, but outstanding red berries from fall into winter. Cultivars abound that stay under 5′. A very low-maintenance shrub.December Shrub of the Month-Winterberry (garden-lou.com)

–Fothergilla–Smaller shrubs with outstanding fall colors of yellow, orange, and red at the same time, adorable spring flowers, and very low maintenance. Many cultivars are available. October Shrub of the Month-Fothergilla (garden-lou.com)

-Witchhazel, Hamamells-Unique fragrant flowers in late fall or early spring. Beautiful vase shape up to 12′ high and fall color ranging from yellow to bright red. January Shrub of the Month-Witch Hazel (garden-lou.com)

–Oakleaf hydrangea-Hydrangea quercifolia Excellent fall color and a range of heights from 4′ to 8′. Great winter interest with the dried flower heads and peeling cinnamon-colored bark. May Shrub of the Month-Ruby Slippers Hydrangea (garden-lou.com)

–Serviceberry-Amelanchier.-A small native tree with outstanding fall color, delicate flowers in spring, and edible fruit you will love as much as the birds. Comes in single-trunk or multi-trunk versions. September Tree of the Month-Serviceberry (garden-lou.com)

If you want four-season screening with berries and shelter for wildlife, try our native evergreen, Eastern red cedar or the Taylor juniper nativar.

February Tree of the Month-Taylor Juniper (garden-lou.com)

Educate yourself about invasives at Missouri Invasive Plant Council’s online resources;

Missouri Invasive Plant Council | making invasive plants a statewide priority (moinvasives.org)

Find your new favorite native plant on Grow Native’s website;

Native Plant Database – Grow Native!