Lonicera xylosteum
Fly honeysuckle
Common names: Dwarf honeysuckle
At a glance
- Light
- Partial shade
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −30 °C
- Pruning
- Jun–Jul
- Spacing
- 150 cm, rows 200 cm
- Water need
- Low
- Origin
- Native to Germany
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Description
The Common Hedge Cherry is a native wild shrub used for natural hedges and bird protection. Its paired red berries are poisonous to humans and should not be eaten. For birds, they are an important food source, and its cream‑white flowers in May provide nectar for wild bees and bumblebees. Plant it intentionally as a wild shrub, not for harvest.
Care instructions
Plant the hedge cherry in autumn (October, week 42) in a semi‑shaded to shaded spot; it is one of the few wild shrubs that also thrive in the shade under trees. It is absolutely low‑maintenance and cut‑resistant. Leave the berries for the birds and cut the shrub only to keep it in shape in the hedge. Make sure children do not nibble the poisonous berries.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, lime-loving, nutrient-rich
It likes deep, humus-rich loamy soils with a good lime content; it is lime-loving (basiphilous) and prefers neutral to slightly alkaline conditions. Keep the soil loose and free-draining (no waterlogging); it copes well with moderately dry to fresh sites, and poorer sites are not a problem either.
Feeding
Medium feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
As a frugal wild shrub, fly honeysuckle usually manages entirely without fertiliser. On poor soils or after a hard pruning, spread a thin layer of ripe compost around the shrub in spring (March to April) and work it in shallowly; you can also scatter horn shavings as a supplement. Established shrubs need a dose of compost only every few years.
Pruning
Thin out the fly honeysuckle as needed every 2 to 3 years, straight after flowering in June (from week 25). It flowers on the previous year's wood, so a late-winter pruning would remove the flower buds already formed, and with them the berry buds. If you want to keep the flowers and the berries for the birds, pruning after flowering is right; if you only care about dense growth, a hard pruning in March is also possible.
Overwintering
Fly honeysuckle is a native wild shrub and comes through Central European winters outdoors without trouble. No winter protection is needed; it is hardy far below -15 °C. In the first winter, young plants in a harsh spot with frost without snow cover can be protected with a loose layer of brushwood at the base; from the second year on you no longer need to.
Propagation
Methods
- Cuttings
- Layering
- From seed
The most reliable way to propagate fly honeysuckle is by cuttings. In early summer (June/July), take semi-ripe shoots 10 to 15 cm long, remove the lower leaves and insert the cuttings into moist, humus-rich compost in a semi-shaded spot. Keep the compost evenly moist; rooting succeeds within a few weeks. Alternatively, hardwood cuttings in early spring also work, before the new growth starts.
Propagation by layering is even easier: bend a long shoot growing close to the ground down into the soil in a U shape, fix it with a stone or a soil peg, and cover the bend with about 5 cm of soil. This works most reliably in late summer; by the following autumn the layer has formed enough roots, and you then separate it from the mother plant and replant it.
Sowing from seed is also possible, but it takes patience and a cold stimulus: in autumn, remove the seeds from the red berries (caution: the berries are mildly poisonous), wash off the pulp thoroughly and sow the seeds directly outdoors in autumn, where natural frost breaks their dormancy. Alternatively, stratify them in the fridge, cool and moist, and sow them in spring. Note that cross-pollination with other Lonicera species is possible. For cultivars that come true, it is therefore better to fall back on cuttings or layering.
For your garden
Grow Fly honeysuckle yourself
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