Mention honeysuckle to anyone and the immediate image that forms in our minds is the scented clambering climber. Mention honeysuckle to gardeners and they will also think of the winter flowering scented shrubs such as Lonicera purpusii or Lonicera frangantissima.
But just look at this beauty growing in our back garden. Delicately scented pink flowers that resemble miniature lilac blooms on a scraggy untidy growing shrub. It is in flower now in May and will have red berries shining along its stems in the autumn where its flowers are now.
We have been enjoying its colour and scent each spring for the last 10 years and totally forgotten its name. We decided this year to find out what it was. The answer was to take a few photos along to our Shropshire Hardy Plant and ask Joe our plant guru. I thought it was a Lonicera (honeysuckle), Jude the Undergardener thought it was a Syringa (lilac) and other Hardy Plant friends thought it was a Daphne.
Joe had a close look and came up with the ID after just a few seconds thought. Lonicera rupicola var. syringantha, a honeysuckle with flowers like a lilac. It grows untidily to about 7 or 8 feet so ours is well on its way to being fully grown. Several hardy planters have asked for cuttings which we need to take in June, so it will be a productive shrub this year.
Enjoy my gallery of photos of this special shrub and imagine its scent. Just click on any pic to get started.
greenbenchramblings 
5 replies on “A very special honeysuckle!”
It must smell lovely.
Honeysuckle feeds all sorts of insects, and hummingbirds adore it. I have a native species that I keep pruned. It’s heavenly.
Not one I would have recognised. Lovely to have scented plants in the garden.
It is a beautiful flower but a bit of a scruffy shrub. Malc
Adore the smell of honeysuckle. I used to have a perfume years ago that had honeysuckle in it. Or candles with honeysuckle scent. Yes indeed! Margie