Honeysuckle: what is it, useful properties, planting, care and reproduction

In this article, we want to talk about a plant such as honeysuckle. What it is? Surely you have not once seen on the stretches of beautifully flowering shrubs, giving fruit.

Honeysuckle. What it is?

Honeysuckle - upright or curly, creeping shrubs belonging to the family of honeysuckle. Flowers can be blue, white, pinkish, yellow. Berries of different varieties differ in taste. Fruits have a sweet or sour-sweet taste with a slight bitterness. The native land of the plant is Southeast Asia, where many of its species are now growing.

Recently, among the gardeners, such a culture as honeysuckle has become very popular (which is what we will tell in the article). Why did this plant conquer the hearts of the summer residents? People, above all, are attracted by beautiful flowers of honeysuckle. A curling plant, braiding fences and arbours, create beautiful and lively flowering hedges. However, in addition to decorative meaning, fruit is of particular interest. Some of them can be eaten.

Of the two hundred varieties of the plant, only a few species have edible fruits. Inedible varieties in the people called "wolf berries". They have a red or orange color. These berries are not only not edible, but also poisonous. You can not eat them in any case.

Honeysuckle berries

Growing edible honeysuckle has gained popularity only in recent years, although it is not surprising, because the fruits of the plant - it is a storehouse of different vitamins and micronutrients useful for the organism. The amount of their content in these berries is much greater than in blueberries and blackberries.

Useful properties of the plant

Specialists claim that the fruits of the plant treat anemia, scurvy, indigestion. Berries are also recommended for use in cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, atherosclerosis. It is very useful honeysuckle as a body cleansing from various kinds of harmful substances. A kind of strong antioxidant. And this is not the whole list of advantages of berries.

This is also a good honeysuckle. Its properties have long been known in folk medicine. Healers often resort to the help of this plant, containing such necessary for human substances, such as fructose, glucose, sucrose, galactose, organic acids, as well as vitamin A, B vitamins, ascorbic acid. Berries are rich in magnesium, potassium, calcium, copper, iodine, pectin and tannins.

Honeysuckle is good because it has early maturity, so vitamins can be obtained much earlier than from other berries and fruits. Despite the presence of light bitterness, the children really like the fruits of the plant.

Application of honeysuckle

In addition to the decorative purpose of honeysuckle in parks and gardens, it has also received quite a worthy application in cooking. Naturally, only edible varieties are used.

Mistresses have long learned to make jam from honeysuckle, jelly, jam, stuffing for baking. In addition, they make juices and wine. And also dried and frozen berries.

Jam from honeysuckle is not only very tasty, but also useful. Berries are also used in medicine, as they have anti-inflammatory, choleretic, diuretic effect.

Honeysuckle, whose properties are so limitless, is used in folk medicine. It is used in diseases of the gallbladder, bleeding, malaria, hypertensive problems, stomach disorders.

It should be noted that the medicinal properties are not only berries, but also broths from roots and branches. They are used for dropsy as a diuretic. But tinctures of leaves and flowers are used as an anti-inflammatory and disinfectant in case of problems with the eyes and throat. The juice of berries of honeysuckle is a good medicine for treating ulcers and lichens on the skin.

It is believed that the extract of honeysuckle has antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral effects. It is used in the treatment of eczema and psoriasis. And baths from young branches help with articular rheumatism.

Honeysuckle: properties and contraindications

Honeysuckle, of course, is a very useful plant, but it is good to observe the measure in everything. Do not eat too much, even edible berries. Especially if you are trying them for the first time. Sometimes, nevertheless, there may be side effects in the form of allergic skin rashes, muscle spasms and stomach upset. Remember that only blue and black berries are edible. And red and orange fruits are poisonous, they can not be tried in any case, even one such berry can greatly harm a person.

Honeysuckle: description of the plant

If you want to have on your site a beautiful flowering plant with useful fruits, then you certainly need to plant honeysuckle. What it is? This tall shrub is two meters high, which can grow in one place to twenty-five years. It has a compact crown with straight or slightly curved shoots. Branches have a red or brown tinge.

The honeysuckle begins in early May. The plant needs cross-pollination, so if you want to harvest berries, gardeners in one plot plant several of its varieties. The most decorative species of bushes are in the flowering period. At this time the plant is very beautiful. After flowering, ovaries are formed, and after a while, dark-gray fruits with a wax coating appear. Under good conditions, one bush can yield up to three kilograms of berries.

For the first time, the plant begins to bear fruit only for the third year after planting. Berries ripen in late spring. They taste like blueberries or blueberries. Fruits exude the most beautiful aroma.

Varieties of honeysuckle

Speaking of what a honeysuckle (variety, description), it should be noted that there are many of its varieties. Of course, not all fruits are edible and shrubs are valued by gardeners only as a beautiful ornamental plant.

Such varieties include Tatar honeysuckle. It is a tall shrub with dark green leaves, which grows to three meters. In nature, Tatar honeysuckle grows in Central Asia and China. Its fruits are bright red, but they are extremely poisonous. However, during fruiting, the bushes look very beautiful.

This variety has a lot of varieties, which are perfectly used in landscape design.

Equally beautiful is the red honeysuckle, which is a curly liana with beautiful, bright, red fruits. The plant reaches a five-meter length. A feature of the decorative vine is abundant and very long flowering from July to September. With proper care, you can also achieve repeated flowering in late autumn.

Currently, edible species are offered for sale by such varieties: Atut, Vitamin, Duet, Karina, Lydia. All of them are distinguished by their taste and the period of fruit ripening. If you decide to plant honeysuckle (varieties, the description is presented to your attention in the article), then first decide which plant you want to get: only decorative or with edible berries. Based on the preferences and possibilities of care, choose the appropriate variety. In principle, all plants of this species are not particularly whimsical, but nevertheless it is necessary to know in advance the characteristics of growth.

Planting a plant

Let's see how to make a honeysuckle. Planting and care, reproduction of this plant in principle do not differ much complexity. So, for a bush it is necessary to choose an even solar part. Almost all varieties of honeysuckle like the sun, although there are species that bear a slight penumbra. But it should be understood that in a shaded place, the plant will not bloom abundantly, much less bear fruit. But, as for the land, the honeysuckle grows on any soils. It is best to plant the plant in mid-October.

Categorically it is not recommended to plant bushes in late autumn, the plant will not have time to settle down to colds and may die.

How to plant honeysuckle? Planting and care, the reproduction of the plant in principle is not much different from other shrub species. If you plan to acquire not one, several bushes, then landing should be carried out at a distance of two meters. Dig holes of at least forty centimeters deep. Between the rows leave a distance of three meters. Before planting in the wells, put a nutritious mixture. It can be prepared as follows: a bucket of humus is mixed with a hundred grams of double superphosphate and thirty grams of sulphate. In each hole, enough to make a hundred grams of the mixture.

After planting, the land around the plant needs to be well drowned and poured in the calculation of ten liters for each bush. The final stage is mulching. Before planting, in no case do you need to trim the bush, as this can provoke a delay in growth in the future.

Care of the plant

The first years the plant will grow slowly, but all the same it needs to provide due care. Since honeysuckle is a moisture-loving culture, in hot season it will require frequent, but not too abundant watering.

On average, ten liters of water are poured under one bush. With a lack of moisture berries can be bitter.

Honeysuckle is very responsive to organic, so it should be fertilized regularly. Well suited for such purposes humus, urea. But before blossoming, you can spend foliar top dressing with special preparations: Master, Aquarine, Rastvorin.

Honeysuckle breeding

How can you propagate honeysuckle? Planting, reproduction - these are the points that are most of all interested in gardeners. New plants can be obtained in several ways - cuttings, layers, division of rhizomes, seeds.

However, the most effective is the method of dividing the roots. This can be done either in autumn or early spring. The bush is first excavated, and then divided by a pruner and planted. This method is good for young plants that are less than five years old. Old bushes can not stand such a procedure.

Good results yield multiplication by layers. Lower shoots are pressed to the ground and sprinkled with earth. In this state, they remain until early spring. After they take root, they should be separated from the bush and planted in a new place.

Green cuttings propagate the plant in May. However, this method is rather troublesome. The cuttings are initially lowered into a growth stimulant, and then planted in the soil or seedlings a day later. After that, they are covered with a film on top. Further care provides watering and ventilation of the cuttings. For the winter, plantations are covered with foliage. And in spring the plants are transplanted to a new location.

As for seeds, reproduction with their help is a very complicated process, so they are practically not used.

Instead of an afterword

Honeysuckle and its useful properties have long conquered gardeners. Such a beautiful plant will become an ornament of any site. Moreover, there are many varieties that have a long flowering period. If you are planning to acquire a new culture in the suburban area, then certainly think about honeysuckle, especially since its fruits are tasty and useful.