I have a lovely honeysuckle which flowered very well during the spring.
There are nice berries on it now. However a few days ago the leaves
started to fall off. Is this normal or do I have a problem. Please
help!

Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article .com,
writes:
|
| I have a lovely honeysuckle which flowered very well during the spring.
| There are nice berries on it now. However a few days ago the leaves
| started to fall off. Is this normal or do I have a problem. Please
| help!

Without knowing the species, it is hard to say, but quite likely not.
If the weather returns to warm and dry, and the berries DON'T then
shrivel up, definitely not. It will almost certainly return next year.

Most honeysuckle are deciduous and, while this is very early for them
to drop leaves, the hot, dry July may have caused them to do that.
A large number of deciduous plants drop leaves in response to water
stress as well as cold. In hotter, drier countries, some plants lose
their leaves ONLY in summer!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.


Thanx Nick. The berries are very bright and full and possibly gets
watered too much. I am just a bit shocked that all the leaves have
fallen so early in the year.

K wrote:

The Invalid writes
On 13 Aug 2006 00:44:08 -0700, wrote:

I have a lovely honeysuckle which flowered very well during the spring.
There are nice berries on it now. However a few days ago the leaves
started to fall off. Is this normal or do I have a problem. Please
help!
Just a point
16 years ago we bought a honeysuckle to put at the rear of our garden.
It now runs rampant and damned near uncontrollable over many parts of
the garden and others gardens too. Due, I suspect to the birds eating
the berries and crapping out the seeds.
So a suggestion might be to pick all the berries off and put them in
the rubbish bin.

And then you could put out expensive birdseed to compensate for cutting
off the food source, and have sunflowers all over your garden ;-)
--
Kay

well said

Hello all

A slight diversion - perhaps I should start a new thread - but what is the
best way to give a honeysuckle a seasonal haircut ?
It's alonicera x heckrotti, I think, planted on a corner next to a window.
On the outside it is really beautiful with white and yellow flowers and a
delicious scent.
From inside the window, however, it's a mass of scraggy brown.
The problem is that if I cut out the scraggy brown mess I'm at the same time
cutting out the green live shoots - because it's all on the same stems.
Grateful for any ideas
(.¿.)
Raymond RUSSELL