Today in gardens, there are a large number of varieties of such a plant as honeysuckle. Photos of this culture can be seen in many magazines on landscape design: it is bred as a decorative and beautiful shrub for alleys and arbors, and as a fence, and as a decor for masking walls.
general information
Honeysuckle is a straight-growing shrub reaching a height of up to two meters, with brown bark and oblong pubescent leaves. In early May, beautiful yellowish flowers appear on it, which attract insects with their aroma. The fruits of honeysuckle are purple berries with a bluish bloom and thick coloring juice. They are somewhat reminiscent of blueberries, while they have an oblong shape. The taste of the fruits is sweet and sour and it depends on the degree of ripeness that the edible honeysuckle will have.
Varieties for Moscow region
From one bush of this berry culture, you can collect up to two and a half kilograms of fruit. The best varieties that can be grown in the suburbs are Sinichka, the Chosen One. The most common is Nymph - honeysuckle, a photo of which is often found in gardening magazines. It has a rounded crown, straight branches and dark green leaves of an elongated oval shape. Berries of the Nymph are bluish-blue weighing 1.16 grams, with a dense skin and fibrous pulp. The fruit has a sweet taste and a strong pleasant aroma. The ripening period for the variety is medium. In season, about two kilograms of berries gives this honeysuckle edible.
Varieties for the suburbs love soft soil. As a rule, all of them have average flaking and high winter hardiness. Some of them, as experienced gardeners note, have one drawback: thickening of the crown. But the disadvantage is fully compensated by many other advantages that honeysuckle near Moscow has.
Landing and care
In autumn, this plant requires increased attention. In order to get a big crop in the season, starting from mid-October, you need to properly monitor the bush, remove weeds, etc. The pruning of honeysuckle is no less relevant.
In the autumn, after the fruits are picked, and the greens are opal, you need to remove various debris from the rhizomes. The leaves do not have to be removed, as they form the layer that helps protect the honeysuckle from the cold in winter.
Planting and care in the fall have some features. The gardener needs to know about them in order not only to get a crop from edible varieties, but also to have a healthy and beautiful plant on his plot.
Transplant in the fall
According to the assurances of some experienced gardeners, it is better to plant honeysuckle precisely in this season, since this is the most favorable period. The optimal time period for these works is the end of August and the beginning of September. It was then that the growth of shoots ceased and at about the same time the apical buds began to be laid.
If you are going to transplant a honeysuckle in the fall, work needs to be carried out as follows:
- the root neck should be at ground level;
- the distance between the seedlings should be at least one meter;
- the size of the landing pit is about forty centimeters;
- on the bottom you need to make humus, potassium salt and superphosphate.
Honeysuckle pruning
In autumn, in addition to transplantation, this bush requires a mandatory procedure. This is a pruning of honeysuckle. In autumn, old and damaged branches are removed from the plants that have reached the age of six under the base. So that the crown is not very thick, you need to get rid of the numerous root shoots. At the same time, it is not recommended to touch the tops of young shoots with the largest number of flower buds.
Trimming honeysuckle in autumn is done in order not only to maintain beautiful forms in the shrub, but also to rejuvenate the plant and increase fruiting in edible varieties.
In general, this garden culture is distinguished by the fact that in the process of its growth it produces a lot of branches, ranging from shoots at the base and ending with numerous shoots on the main branches that grow in different directions.
Care for decorative varieties
Few people know that the autumn pruning of honeysuckle varies from species to species. Bushes of this plant are very often used as hedges. Therefore, pruning honeysuckle, especially in autumn, is needed to maintain decorative beauty and increase flowering intensity. It is so nice to look at a flowering fence, literally sprinkled with fragrant inflorescences.
Trimming honeysuckle in the autumn helps not only the decorative beauty of the bush, but also gives it health and strength, increasing its green mass. It is better to conduct it after leaf fall, however, without delaying the process until the first snow. If you want the bush to be not very tall, then pruning the honeysuckle - in autumn or spring - is done to the desired size, and then this shape is constantly maintained.
To do this, during the summer several times you need to trim individual branches that protrude beyond the contours of the common crown. But the final formation of the hedge is carried out more carefully.
Since honeysuckle develops very slowly, it is better not to show excessive zeal. Correctly, do not cut the plant for three or four years. If the bush has an irregular shape, then pruning the branches is best done from the ground.
Edible varieties
Proper pruning of honeysuckle in the fall, combined with normal care, allows the plant to not only exist in excellent shape for several decades, but also give good yields. As for the edible varieties - Nymphs, Titmouse, etc. - their first seven or even nine years do not need to be cut at all. This allows the plant to grow quietly and form its flower buds.
In this case, five-year-old bushes periodically undergo light sanitary pruning, consisting in cutting primarily shoots lying on the soil, as well as removing old and diseased branches.
And only in the eighth year begins regular thinning: every season. Honeysuckle is trimmed in the fall after leaf fall. To rejuvenate the bushes of edible varieties, only the old tops of the skeletal branches are removed. In this case, up to five of the strongest trunks are left on the bush.
It must be remembered that the bulk of the fruit grows on young annual branches. Therefore, you need to try not to shorten the shoots that appeared during the current year, and then next year there will be many large berries on them. You need to remove only weakened or unproductive branches, as well as those that grow inward.
After fifteen, a maximum of twenty years, the process of aging of the bush begins. Therefore, he needs to carry out "surgical" rejuvenation. This is done as follows: first, the plant is very thin out. Then the honeysuckle is trimmed: in the fall, those main branches that have stopped growing shorten to the promising “daughters”. Thus, almost the entire old bush is removed, and growth is transferred to younger trunks. In this case, do not forget to paint over large wounds with paint.
Features
Honeysuckle pruning in autumn has its own rules, which must be followed:
- only dry or damaged branches are removed;
- categorically it is impossible to get rid of the tops of young shoots: they have the largest number of buds;
- after pruning, five or fewer healthy and powerful trunks remain on the bush.
Top dressing in the fall
Honeysuckle with the onset of this time of year requires a fairly thorough care. In addition to pruning and replanting during this period, it is important to find time to feed the bushes. In the future, this provides honeysuckle with lush flowering and rich harvests. Therefore, it is important to take timely care of saturating the root soil with essential nutrients.
As an autumn top dressing for honeysuckle, it is better to use organic fertilizer - humus or mature compost. At the same time, you need to make such dressings only once every three or four years.
Finally
In general, there is nothing complicated in caring for honeysuckle, but if the gardener wants to grow a well-bearing crop, then he needs to focus on autumn procedures.