Lonicera crassifolia Little Honey

Lonicera crassifolia 'Little Honey' is a rare and unusual evergreen honeysuckle, with a prostrate habit, still little known to gardeners. It forms a beautiful and interesting ground cover throughout the year, and is valuable for areas of the garden where the soil is mediocre and poor, often difficult to landscape. Its abundant summer flowering, cream-yellow with a hint of mauve, gives way to numerous violet berries that enhance the decorative aspect of its small, glossy foliage reddened by the cold until winter. Hardy and accommodating, this small bush is easy to incorporate into a rockery, as a border plant or even in a container on the terrace. In these conditions, it is really difficult not to find a place for it in the garden!

Lonicera 'Little Honey', recently obtained in the Netherlands, belongs to the Caprifoliaceae family. This small, creeping and compact honeysuckle won the "Jury's Favorite" award in Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard in 2012. Its ancestor, Lonicera crassifolia, is native to the Himalayas. 'Little Honey' is really easy to grow in well-drained soil and is very hardy. With a prostrate habit, composed of long branches running along the surface of the ground, it reaches barely 20cm (7.9in) in height and occupies 80cm (31.5in) to 1m (3ft 4in) in width. Its growth is quite slow, and its vegetation is well-branched. Its dense and bushy habit will be maintained or accentuated by regular pruning. Its small, tough, evergreen leaves are very glossy, dark green until summer. With the arrival of cold weather, they turn red, becoming violet in case of colder temperatures. The flowering takes place from June to August, depending on the climate, for about 1 month. The small flowers are produced abundantly. Tiny cream-yellow honeysuckle flowers, which take on honey and pinkish-purple tones as the hours go by. The small red-purple fruits, turning violet, are toxic to humans but appreciated by birds.

The 'Little Honey' honeysuckle definitely deserves to be discovered. It will be very useful for covering the ground along a sunny border, in a rockery, and will allow for beautiful flower pots on the terrace. It has only one requirement: well-drained soil, not too dry in summer. It can also be planted on a large slope, as ground cover, at a rate of 1 to 2 plants per square metre. Its compact habit and the brilliance of its red leaves make it very decorative in winter, while its abundant flowering charms in summer. For example, associate it with a creeping Ceanothus, a dwarf holly Ilex 'Little Rascal', silver Lonicera nitida... and play with contrasts to illuminate an area of the garden. You can also train it against a trellis.