Wild Rose and Honeysuckle

Wild Rose And Honeysuckle

A typical English Summer is made up of all our favourite up things and this year we are getting plenty of it if not a little too much – Sunshine – strawberries and cream, seaside holidays, ice creams swimming and strolling in the shade through lanes of hedges all covered in wild rose and honeysuckle – that deep sweet slightly sticky smell of honeysuckle and the delicate flowery light scent of wild rose is just such a treat.  Take time to enjoy what we are given for free by nature.

Wild Rose – Rosa Canina
Our only native rose is common through the country but more so in the south and east .  It is sharp thorns up its stem and was therefore deliberately planted in hedgerows for stock control.  It has a pretty soft pink flower head with yellow stamens – and a heavenly perfume.  It is a great source of nectar for all sorts of pollinators and its bright red hips provide much needed pre winter food for birds. The hips are also used to make rose hip syrup which is full of Vitamin C.

Honeysuckle – Lonicera periclymenum
Look out for this climber twisting up through the hedgerows.  Their beautiful cream trumpet like flowers give out the most heavenly scent, particularly in the evening attracting all sorts of pollinators which become doused in powdery pollen from the long  stamens clustered in the centre of the trumpet flowerhead
Honeysuckle is hugely valuable to wildlife supporting several species many of which are rare.  Butterflies, such as the White Admiral, rely specifically on honeysuckle.  It is also very popular with bumble bees.  Pollinating moths are attracted to the sweet scent of honeysuckle at night when it is at its strongest.

Honeysuckle grows by twisting up around the shoots of neighbouring shrubs.  It twists clockwise around the stem and as the stem also grows the Honeysuckle becomes embedded in the stem.  These stems were highly prized for walking sticks with the twisted branch.

Athene English