Already have invasive honeysuckles, I don’t know that you will find much honeysuckle that is more fragrant or blooms longer. Why not look for a different plant? Trumpet Vine is highly attractive to hummers, and is native, so won’t harm surrounding wildlife when it’s seeds are carried around by birds. Do a search for fragrant shrubs or vines.

I ordered Kintzley's Ghost this year. I have my fingers crossed that it will work well for me. I've had the ones that are very invasive in the past, and I don't think this will be. I saw it on Garden Answer's Youtube channel and fell in love with the foliage.

"Wild invasive type" there in Florida = Lonicera japonica?

docmom.

The invasive one only blooms in spring..every once in awhile we get a few scant fall blooms otherwise its just ugly green. I know there must be some that bloom more often. We have some kind of orange trumpet creeper in the woods that blooms but doesn't seem to be fragrant. Also Carolina jessamine which is blooming right now but not too much rebloom after spring here. There's an invasive fragrant wistera out there but it only blooms in spring as well.

I didn't plant any of them they were here when I got here. In fact, they are all over the whole neighborhood area which is mostly woods and farms. I think homeowners cut them back off the property and they just grow around and spread through the woods, by the river, and ditches.

cooper, Kintzley's Ghost sure has interesting grey green leaves! I think its really pretty. Let us know how it does and post some pics:). I will post pics of whatever I get as well.

gardengal I will look up the varieties you've mentioned. I do see the red one from time to time at Home Depot etc. I will be on the lookout this spring.

Pretty sure the Trumpet vine on the loose in our woods is the Campsis radicans. It climbs to amazing heights. It was all over Southern Louisiana as well when we uses to live there lol.

My dh says his grandmother in AZ had a yellow one that bloomed spring through fall. I would like to find something similar. I found one called Lonicera periclymenum 'Scentsation'. That might bloom enough and says its fragrant. Anyone have that one?

All of the periclymenums are fragrant...most very fragrant. I have not grown Scentsation but I have grown Graham Thomas, which is very similar and just a true yellow color. But I have also grown Serotina and Peaches and Cream, both of which are bicolored and very fragrant!!

Thanks gardengal. I noticed there's a periclymenum Serotina that they are calling Late Dutch and then one periclymenum Belgica thats aka Early Dutch. They look the same Lol! I guess they are just referring to the bloom times but its odd they look the same. Maybe I will get both to extend the bloom time. I will look up the Graham Thomas too.

Sultry,

Here in the North, most shrubs bloom just in the spring in order to produce seed by the end of summer or fall, before frost and snow hit. I know seasons in FL are different. It must be nice to have blooms year round.

docmom, yes it is nice for the most part. If one plans carefully, they can get something blooming most of the year. Probably all year if I planned more carefully.

I grow mostly subtropical and tropical stuff. That means a greenhouse from mid Dec to beginning of March for a lot of my plants. We do get a few freezes here in NE FL where I live. In the last few yrs, I have been getting back into roses and adding more hardy things so it doesn't have to be lugged into the gh.

These are what I've ordered so far:

Lonicera Dropmore Scarlet

periclymenum Serotina

periclymenum Belgica

Lonicera Candy Swirl

I found these on ebay fairly cheap by a seller I've bought from before. Still plan to get a yellow one and maybe one called Goldflame.

For fragrance 'Serotina' is lovely as is 'Scentsation', the latter offering more bloom time in my experience. For a longer blooming period I have grown and will grow again 'Major Wheeler'. No scent, but I quite like the color of it, and hummingbirds love it.

@Embothrium I'm not sure of the botanical name of our 'wild' honeysuckle. Here's a photo of the leaves and flowers from when I made Honeysuckle Jelly with it and took some photos. Maybe you can identify it.

I've been looking for a fragrant honeysuckle for awhile. I've bought four of them that were supposed to be fragrant but they didn't turn out to be, so I stopped buying them.

Specimen in front of jars is Lonicera japonica. Before ordering anymore of the other kinds check on suitability for USDA 9 Florida climate and soil conditions. In fact it would probably be worthwhile to find out about this before bothering to plant the ones you have already sent for! Apart from reading up another way to get an idea is to visit local sites such as arboreta, botanical gardens and full sized independent garden centers where - unlike warehouse store plant departments - a broad and representative range of plants will be on display. If you don't come across ones like you have ordered at any of these locations then that may not be a good sign.

Otherwise I've been to the Orlando area for instance and I don't recall seeing any honeysuckles of the periclymenum etc. type nor did it seem like the kind of environment that would suit them. We went to the Leu Botanical Garden in Orlando and Bok Tower gardens NE of there. I also walked around on the giant university campus in/near Oviedo, including the on campus natural area bordering a small lake. (Where as at Leu I saw the native, mostly deciduous muck soil vegetation as well as in addition the surprisingly California like dryland looking assemblage that occurs on the white sand derived soil where the ground is a little higher). Despite being that far north in the State it was still all very warm southern climate in character, with there even being philodendrons in the landscaping at the airport.

Feel free to plant the coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, whenever or wherever you like :-) It is native to much of the southeast, including your area, and is perfectly well adapted to local conditions.

The European varieties may require additional research.

I only paid 5 or 6 dollars for each of the honeysuckles I ordered. So if they dont make it, its not a huge loss. The seller also combines shipping, so its not a hefty price. They are little starter plants which I am used to buying and babying. I got a bunch of Buddleias from him/her last year that were tiny when they arrived but turned out great and to be the correct varieties.

~Sjn

Orlando is a 9b and we are a 9a. We get more freezes than they do. The humidity in the summer may be higher here or the same. Not entirely sure on that but we often get rain most days in summer. Fall and winter are typically warm and drier with some freezing nights once in a while.

Mine is very fragrant and I don't think it's invasive because I planted 4 years ago and still not too much on the fence. It blooms all year round.

Here are the 4 honeysuckle starter plants I ordered. They said they would be dormant but I think they woke up in the mail lol. I gave them sips of rainwater. They have good roots.

I grew "Gold Flame" honeysuckle in SC, Where it kept a nice, compact shape and didn't spread like wildfire from runners. When I brought it down here, it just struggled so much, and finally died.

Were you in S. FL when you first moved down here? Most places rate it to zn 5-9 (some say 4 or 6 to 9...some say 5-8b... most say to 9). I wonder if it was heat or humidity that killed it? Almost Eden in Louisiana carries it and I seem to be able to grow most of the things they can. I order from them quite often.

In addition to the summer climate Florida has pests and diseases that can exclude kinds of plants that survive farther north.

Sultry, I was in SW FL, which was zone 9b then, but is 10a now. The first winter I was there, we had torrential rains all winter, lots of flooding, from La Nina. It just didn't do well with all that water, since honeysuckle is essentially a weed that likes it dry. It survived the winter, barely, and grew, but was never the same again. It only had one little vine that wasn't growing at all, so I dug it up.

These things are completely leafing out now and growing new stems everywhere. They have been getting lots of nice rain water with all the rain we have been getting. I am gonna have to find their permanent spots soon.