Hall's Prolific Japanese Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle Hall's Prolific

Lonicera Hall's Prolific is a great, disease resistant honeysuckle that will race to cover a sizeable area: brilliant for quickly screening an ugly fence, or creating a wildlife-friendly vertical feature. We have plenty of other honeysuckles to choose from, with pink or orange flowers. Hall's Prolific is very similar to Halliana, the main difference being that the latter grows taller, to about 8 metres.

The flowers are classic honeysuckle: clusters of long, tubular sweetly perfumed blooms that open white and mature to a rich golden yellow. It's wonderfully long flowering; the blooms open from April until August, and are loved by bees and other pollinators.
The purple-black berries that ripen in autumn are not edible.

The leaves are semi-evergreen. In practice, this means that it depends on where you live. They'll survive milder winters and in sheltered locations, but will drop in a harsh winter, regrowing in spring.
Hall's Prolific is an RHS Award of Garden Merit winner and will thrive in almost any garden.

Growing Hall's Prolific

Ideally needs a good-sized wall, sturdy fence, mature hedge or big, robust tree to clamber up and twine itself around. It's seriously vigorous, so give it space.

If you're growing it over a fence or wall, provide trellis or wire support so that it can gain a foothold and twine with ease.

It prefers either sun or dappled shade, and appreciates good moist, well-drained soil, so dig in some garden compost or leaf mould when planting. You'll probably need to keep it in check by pruning hard in spring, then tidying up as needed throughout the summer.

When thinking of companion plants, consider another honeysuckle, maybe the dark pink Dart's World, or a clematis in a complementary colour, such as rich-pink Doctor Ruppel.

Features

• Height/Spread: 4m x 3m
• Colour: white maturing to rich yellow
• Shape: tubular flowers
• Scent: sweetly perfumed
• Flowering: Late March/April to August
• Group: climber
• Position: full sun to part shade
• RHS Award of Garden Merit

Did You Know?

It seems this variety was brought to us by a breeder named George R Hall.
Lonicera japonica is native to Japan, Korea and China. It was introduced outside of Asia in the 19th century.