Where would gardeners be for winter flowers without lonicera? Although honeysuckles are best known as scented climbers for draping over arches or growing among rambling roses in summer, a few shrubby types bloom brilliantly in the depths of winter. But they’re not the only plants to illuminate winter with their perfume or beauty. Headily fragranced daphnes and exquisitely formed edgeworthias also light up the show at this dark time of year.
Lonicera setifera is a real charmer with its nodding clusters of sweetly-scented, tubular, white and pink flowers
The sweetest honeysuckles
The best known winter honeysuckle x ‘Winter Beauty’, a clone that is the result of a backcross between x (a hybrid) and one of its parents, (the other being). I’ve probably lost you by now – the main things to note are that they are all large deciduous shrubs bearing white or creamy-white, sweetly perfumed flowers over a long period in winter, and that in terms of sheer flower-power, x ‘Winter Beauty’ takes first prize.
