Collecting honeysuckle questions

[joepa82]

I am new to bonsai and would like to start a collection of plants. The "wooded" part of my yard is almost completely overrun with what I believe to be some type of honeysuckle, so I am going to start there. My immediate goal is to collect a few of these and try to keep them alive, and I am looking for some advice. I live in St. Louis which is zone 5. My plan is to collect a few after the risk of freezing temperatures subsides (beginning of march maybe). I plan on doing a trunk chop at the lowest branch, gathering as much of the root system as possible, and planting in new soil in a container large enough to fit the root mass.

Any alterations to my plan or advice to increase the chances of my success would be highly appreciated. Also, if anyone has any experience with honeysuckle in general I would listen to everything they would be willing to share about them. Thanks.

 

[Stan Kengai]

Welcome, joepa82. Let me start by saying, I have never collected honeysuckle, so I don't know how well they root after collection. But I pulled up and dug more than my fair share for the first few years after we moved into our house. I would not recommend digging honeysuckle straight out of the soil in one go. The reason is because of the way honeysuckle grows/multiplies. Honeysuckle spreads by ground runners, and often there are little to no roots on the "trunk" of the plant. The plant is often living off of roots on the recumbent runners.

I recommend digging a trench around the plant you want to collect when their buds are beginning to swell, and back-filling it with bonsai "soil". I've found that leftover Turface fines work well in my area. You're looking for something that drains well and holds some moisture (seed starter, sand/perlite mixture). Make the trench at least 2 " wide and 6" deep, deeper if you have sandy soil, wider if you have hard/rocky soil or a larger trunk. The trench should be at least twice the diameter of the base of the plant, 6" minimum. e.g. If you have a plant with a 4" trunk, you want the inside diameter of the trench to be at least 8". Water the back filled trench when done and during any dry spells. Then you can dig the plant next spring, and you should have some pretty good roots in your trench.

Certainly, if you wanted to try, you could always just dig one straight out of the ground. Use the trench diameter above, and try to keep as much of this as possible. Place it in a container slightly larger than the rootball (1" on each side is ideal). Fill the gaps with bonsai "soil" or other free draining mix, and let the soil get mostly dry between waterings.

Good Luck!

 

[PaulH]

There are a lot of different honeysuckle species and they probably vary i their reaction to transplanting.
I've collected Chaparral honeysuckle, the native that grows on my property, with 100% success.
I simply dig around the plant with a sharp shovel a, clean native soil off of the roots, and plant in a soil mix with lots of pumice. the bud back and grow roots quickly.

 

[JudyB]

If they are the invasive type of Japanese honeysuckle, there is little you can do to kill them. Unless the plant is so large that you can't get much root for the top, they do well with collection. If you have a larger trunk, just make sure you do a pretty large chop to go along with the root mass you are able to collect.

 

[rockm]

The distinction has to be made as to whether the honeysuckle is sprawling Japanese honeysuckle (lonicera Japonica) that is extremely common in the Southern U.S as an invasive plant, or a "bush" honeysuckle with a more upright growth pattern. The bush type will have a more centralized root system and probably a better trunk and nebari than the Japanese variety. Bush honeysuckle are pretty easy to dig.

 

[siggie]

The distinction has to be made as to whether the honeysuckle is sprawling Japanese honeysuckle (lonicera Japonica) that is extremely common in the Southern U.S as an invasive plant, or a "bush" honeysuckle with a more upright growth pattern. The bush type will have a more centralized root system and probably a better trunk and nebari than the Japanese variety. Bush honeysuckle are pretty easy to dig.

Rockm, is a lilac variety this bush type?

 

[rockm]

No. They're seperate kinds of plants. A lilac (syringa vulgaris) is a lilac. They're not related to honeysuckle (lonicera).

Both can be made into bonsai though.
Lilac bonsai (scroll down):
http://artofbonsai.org/galleries/nursery_stock.php


Honeysuckle bonsai (scroll down)
http://artofbonsai.org/galleries/halloween06.php

 

[BrianBay9]

I've collected many Japanese honeysuckle. If you get any roots at all, it's almost guaranteed to survive. As stated earlier, the hard part is killing them.

Brian

 

[siggie]

No. They're seperate kinds of plants. A lilac (syringa vulgaris) is a lilac. They're not related to honeysuckle (lonicera).

Both can be made into bonsai though.
Lilac bonsai (scroll down):
http://artofbonsai.org/galleries/nursery_stock.php


Honeysuckle bonsai (scroll down)
http://artofbonsai.org/galleries/halloween06.php

I mean Lonicera syringantha . I don't find it listed here as a species on Wikipedia though.

Edit:
Whoops! I think I found my answer... (emphasis mine)

A little more about Lonicera syringantha - Lilac Honeysuckle
"Possibly the loveliest of the bush honeysuckles" (Genders), this pretty arching shrub (to 4-10') produces its small, lilac-pink flowers with their delicate, sweet perfume, in early spring. Sun/Med

 

[rockm]

Common plant names are notoriously vauge, inaccurate, wrong, or all three. Latin names can help specifically identify plant species. Seems like alot of technical mumbo jumbo at first, but if you ask questions about a plant including--as close as you can--the species name, it can help a lot.

 

[joepa82]

Thank you to everyone for your input. My best guess is that this is Japanese honeysuckle, but will not be able to tell for sure until the spring. I plan on trying to collect a few of the decent ones this spring and taking Stan's more conservative approach on the few that I really like.

 

[siggie]

Common plant names are notoriously vauge, inaccurate, wrong, or all three. Latin names can help specifically identify plant species. Seems like alot of technical mumbo jumbo at first, but if you ask questions about a plant including--as close as you can--the species name, it can help a lot.

Learning this as I go. Bamboos that aren't bamboo, apricots that are plums, and lilacs that are honeysuckles...