The Honeysuckle Bush

Walking the dog around the back of our place today, I noticed a distinctly sweet smell. It reminded me of honeysuckle vines, but I couldn’t remember having seen any on our property before. We followed our noses and came across several very large bushes full of sweet smelling white flowers. I had never heard of a honeysuckle bush, and had no idea what these were. They were very pretty, smelled very sweet, and were very attractive to butterflies and bees. There were dozens of butterflies flitting around the bushes. The dog and I watched them for a few minutes and then we headed back to the house to fetch the kids. I traded the dog for a camera, and the kids and I set off to watch the butterflies and take a few pictures.

The picture at the start of this post shows a couple of butterflies enjoying the flowers.  Below is a close up of the flowers.

And finally, here is a picture that shows more of the bushes and gives a better idea of how they can grow and how lovely they look.

After searching online to try to determine the type of bush – and being very unsuccessful – I typed in honeysuckle bush just because it smelled so much like the vines. Guess what, there is such a thing and some of the pictures online looked just like the ones we took here! I’m not completely convinced that’s what these bushes are (just mostly convinced), but am going to keep an eye on them this fall. The honeysuckle bush will produce berries in the late summer that ripen early in the fall.

The bush is considered invasive and there are web sites devoted to giving instruction on how to kill them! I thought they were very pretty and don’t want to kill ours. There are a wide variety of honeysuckle bushes in existence, some with berries that are slightly toxic to children and others that are fine to consume. It was noted that although it was ok to eat them, they were very bland tasting and people didn’t tend to bother with them. Birds will eat them in the winter after the other, tastier food has been foraged. That is one of the reasons they spread so easily. The flowers can be dried and used in teas or made into an oil. There are some reported health benefits that are associated with consuming them in this manner.

Here are links to pages discussing these:

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/health-benefits-of-honeysuckle-8773.html
http://www.naturopathydigest.com/nutrition_herbs/herbs/honeysuckle_flower.php

I think I’ll wait to try any of these out until after I confirm what the bush is. In the meantime, it is a very ornamental shrub that seems to thrive in our climate. It can attract butterflies to your garden and add a sweet smell to your yard. The bushes may be trimmed to keep the size in check if your space is limited, or left to grow tall and thick like ours and used as a privacy hedge, or to decorate a fence row. Be sure if you decide to grow these that you keep them in check and don't let them choke out any of your other plants!  I know that mine are going to stay for now. I may even transplant some a little closer to the house so that we can enjoy them more easily.