Box leaf honeysuckle is a small, trouble-free shrub that looks great year-round

In the Garden

Looking for a trouble-free, small shrub that looks good all year?

Lonicera nitida (box leaf honeysuckle) is an attractive, drought-tolerant, pest-free evergreen shrub. Reaching 4 feet to 6 feet tall and wide, the leaves are small and glossy. The flowers are insignificant, but they are followed by attractive purple berries that are much appreciated as a food source by winter birds.

In England, they call this shrub “poor man’s box” because it takes well to shearing and is much easier to grow than fussy boxwood, making it the perfect replacement for use in hedges.

Over the years, a number of colorful forms of box honeysuckle have been introduced that are showy enough to create lovely focal points. Featuring brilliant golden leaves, Lonicera nitida ‘Baggesen’s Gold’ forms a dense 5-foot mound that glows like a beacon in the winter garden. Subject to leaf scald in full sun, morning sun exposure brings out its richest luminescence.

The stunningly attractive Lonicera nitida ‘Lemon Beauty’ is also best in morning sun. Its leaves emerge with a purple cast before maturing to dark green, bordered in bright gold. The equally gorgeous cultivar ‘Silver Beauty’ varies only in that its leaves are smaller and edged in silver.

More appropriate for a sunny location is the newly introduced cultivar ‘Red Tips’. Growing to only about 4 feet tall and wide, this lovely form has a lacy appearance with tiny, roundish leaves, bright-red in spring, turning glossy dark-green with a red blush in summer.

An interesting attribute of these shrubs is that the lower branches often root where they touch the ground. Pull gently on the branch, and if it’s rooted, cut it off, gently dig it out, and voilà: You just acquired a nice new shrub to brighten an additional area of the garden.

Winterize your lawnmower

It’s generally unnecessary to continue mowing once the grass stops growing in November, but it’s a big mistake to leave your gas mower sitting in the garage all winter without winterizing it first.

If you leave the gas in the tank, it often coagulates into something that resembles primordial goo. When you pull the cord to start the mower next spring, the gunky goo is likely to clog up the carburetor, resulting in expensive repairs.

It’s not hard to winterize your mower. Simply mow the lawn one last time, and then leave the mower running until it uses up the remaining gas. Next, remove the spark plug and put a couple of drops of oil in the cylinder before pulling the starter cord a couple of times. That will lubricate the piston and cylinder walls, helping to prevent corrosion.

The oil in the crank case can get pretty goopy left sitting all winter, as well. You don’t need to deal with it now, but remember to change the oil in spring before you fire the mower up again.

Dull blades tend to tear rather than cutting cleanly, resulting in ugly brown-topped grass. Every winter, sharpen the blades so they are good to go come spring. If you are a do-it-yourselfer, remove the blade and sharpen the beveled edge with a relatively course single directional file. The sharpening must be done evenly, as an unbalanced blade will cause vibration. If you are mechanically challenged, take the mower, or at least the blades, into a mower shop to have a pro do it.

Anytime you work on your mower, remove and secure the wire away from the spark plug because turning the blade has the same effect as pulling the starter cord. Of course you don’t have to deal with gas and oil if you buy a cordless electric mower like I did. Now if I could just figure out how to sharpen those blades right!