There's a berry that ripens while the strawberry is still in flower, one that crops even where late frosts wipe out every other harvest. And yet hardly anyone grows it: the honeyberry (also called haskap or blue honeysuckle), known in German as Maibeere, literally the “May berry”, after the month it fruits (botanically Lonicera caerulea). It's tough, easy to look after and wonderful for cold spots. There's just one thing you have to know, or you'll wait for fruit that never comes.
The earliest berry of the year
While other berries are only just getting going, the honeyberry is already done. Depending on the variety and your region it ripens in May and June, roughly CW 20 to 25, often two to three weeks ahead of the first strawberry.
The fruits are elongated, with a deep blue bloom, and taste like a blueberry with a faint hint of currant or wild raspberry. They're soft, juicy and rich in vitamin C and the blue anthocyanins. Straight off the bush, made into jam or frozen, they're a treat.
Tougher than almost any other
The honeyberry comes from Siberia and northeast Asia, and it shows. The shrub is hardy down to about minus 40 degrees, and its creamy white flowers open as early as March and April (CW 10 to 16), when almost nothing else is in bloom.
On top of that, pests and diseases mostly leave it alone. You'll struggle to find a more trouble-free berry for the home garden.
Easy about soil, unlike the blueberry
If blueberries have ever driven you to despair, you'll love the honeyberry. It's a blue berry too, but its demands on the soil are completely different, and far more modest. A humus-rich, evenly moist garden soil with a pH of around 5 to 7 is all it asks. No acidic special mix, no peat or bog-bed compost, no watering with rainwater only. It likes a spot in sun to part shade and is grateful for a layer of mulch to keep the soil moist.
At about 1 to 1.5 m the shrub stays compact, grows slowly and lives to a great age. That means it fits almost any garden, and even a large enough container.
Two varieties are a must
Why a single plant comes away empty-handed
This is the crucial point where most people come unstuck: the honeyberry depends on a partner. A single plant sets little or no fruit at all, no matter how well it grows otherwise.
You need at least two different varieties that flower at the same time and pollinate each other. Plant them within sight of one another, so the bumblebees can shuttle back and forth with ease.
The honeyberry asks for little: decent soil, a bit of sun and a neighbour to pollinate it. Then it fruits when nothing else is ripe yet.
Planting and care
Plant it in autumn (CW 40 to 46) or in early spring (CW 12 to 16). Here's how, step by step.
Choose the spot
Sun to part shade, in humus-rich, evenly moist soil. It doesn't like waterlogging, but it doesn't like drought either.
Plant two varieties
Set at least two different varieties that flower at the same time about 1.5 m apart, so the flowers pollinate each other.
Mulch and water in
Mulch with compost or leaf litter, which keeps the soil moist and cool. Water thoroughly after planting.
Be patient
In the first few years it grows slowly and crops little. From the third or fourth year the yield picks up markedly.
It's undemanding when it comes to pruning: for the first five or six years you simply let it grow. Only after that, in late winter (roughly CW 6 to 9), do you cut out the oldest, barely productive shoots down at the base, to let light into the shrub.
Harvest before the birds get there
At harvest it pays to look twice, because the honeyberry likes to lead you astray: the berry turns blue before it's actually ripe. Inside it's still green and sour at that point. Wait about another week after it turns blue and try one: only when it tastes sweet and aromatic all the way through and comes away easily has the right moment arrived.
The honeyberry at a glance
- Earliest berryRipe in May and June, long before the strawberry.
- Two varieties a mustWithout a second partner that flowers at the same time, the crop fails.
- Extremely hardyDown to about minus 40 degrees, and the flowers take a light frost.
- UndemandingOrdinary garden soil, pH 5 to 7, no special mix needed.
- Easy to look afterBarely any pests, little pruning, and suited to a container too.
- Net at harvestLet the berries ripen on after they turn blue, and keep the birds off them.
Häufige Fragen
Why doesn't my honeyberry produce any fruit?
Almost always because a second variety is missing. A single honeyberry doesn't pollinate itself, so it stays largely fruitless. Plant a second, different variety next to it that flowers at the same time, and you'll be fine.
Does the honeyberry need acidic soil like the blueberry?
No, and that's its big advantage. It does well in ordinary garden soil at a pH of around 5 to 7. No acidic mix, no bog bed, no rainwater rule. That makes it far easier than the blueberry.
When is the honeyberry actually ripe?
Not as soon as it turns blue. The skin colours up before the flesh is ripe. Wait about a week after it turns blue and try a berry: only when it tastes sweet and comes away easily is it ripe.
Will the honeyberry fit in a container?
Yes. It stays compact and slow-growing and does well in a large enough pot. There too, remember a second variety for pollination and keep the moisture even.
At a glance
The honeyberry is one of the most rewarding and at the same time most easy-going berries for the garden. It fruits early, is rock-solid against the cold and asks for almost nothing. Just keep the one golden rule in mind: always two different varieties. Then you'll be holding the first home-grown berry of the year while others are only just planting out.
In Gartenkern you can note down both varieties, which one is the pollination partner and when you picked, and set up putting the net over as a recurring task in May. Next year you'll know exactly when your honeyberry 'Wojtek' first ripened, and which corner of the garden the bumblebees liked best.
