Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea)
Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea)
Young plants about 15 - 20 cm high, grown in 7 cm pots
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Small Shrubs
In stock
£6.50
special offer 3 for 2
The blue honeysuckle is a small shrub from Eastern Europe.
With delicate pale yellow flowers early in spring, the blue honeysuckle
has blue-grey foliage and purple/blue berries in late May/early June making them one of the earliest fruit crops of the season. It is very hardy and would look good in any garden. Now sometimes available under the name of honeyberry, there are cultivated forms from Eastern Europe where it is grown commercially, the plants are not self-fertile though so a pollinator is required of a different variety.
The fruit is similar to a blueberry though much easier to grow, but if not fully ripe can be a bit on the bitter side, we pick over a long period, freeze the fruit as we go then make jam when they're all in. Our plants are mostly seedling grown though we sometimes have some cuttings available of the varieties "Kamchatka" and "Edulis". If you have a Honeyberry that is not setting fruit and are unsure which variety it is, try one of our seedlings as a pollinator...
The fruits are usually purple in colour and about 12 - 25 mm in size. Much used by locals where it grows wild, it can be eaten out of hand or cooked for pies, jams and jellies etc. being sweet/acid in flavour.