Which honeysuckle is this please?

A relative has this in her garden. It is unscented (a shame) but I can't identify it. It doesn't seem as rampant as others and the colours are quite muted. Stems softly hairy.

 

Interesting...rather an unusual one.
Lonicera sp are a favourite group of mine.
Over 180 different sp.

They vary so much from huge climbers to dwarf creeping shrubs.
Some are deciduous others evergreen.
Some flower on bare wood in the middle of winter.
Some have the most fabulous scent/others have none.

So I cannot be positive but it may be Lonicera hispidula?

Mother Nature's Backyard - A Water-wise Garden: Plant of the Month (October) : Pink (Hairy; Purple; Western) honeysuckle – Lonicera hispidula


File:Lonicera hispidula 3080.JPG - Wikimedia Commons

 

Hmm thanks @Silver surfer but not sure. On web it shows as clear pink (bluish end of spectrum). This is definitely peachy buff - closer to a muddy version of the colour of old fashioned hemerocallis - no blue tone at all. Also wikipedia says perfoliate near apex - this never showed any perfoliation

 

Is it a twining climber or shrubby one?
Evergreen or deciduous?
Finding this tough...not having much luck.Sorry.
Colours in pics sort of change.

 

Hi @Silver surfer - I only noticed it in flower, so will need to find out if deciduous from relative. At present it seems to be quite a small shrub but the growths are long and twining, so I suspect the shrubiness is due to my aunt's enthusiasm for secateurs rather than intrinsic as with L. purpusii. Yes colours are annoying on computer - I wish they'd use Pantone or RHS colour naming when describing.

 

Been looking.
Finding soft downy hairs, but flowers wrong.
Or find flowers, but leaves are wrong.
Some mention.... no scent.....but that is hard.

Did relation buy it recently. from local garden centre?
Modern cultivar maybe?
Would Garden centre know?

Love Lonicera..used to grow quite a few.
Last year discovered a UK. native one ..LONICERA XYLOSTEUM. FLY HONEYSUCKLE
New to me . I was amazed I had never seen it before.
Now found 3 different places where it grows.

Search: lonicera | Flickr

 

Hi @Silver surfer the plant was bought 20-30 years ago! It is a climber and evergreen.
BTW I think I've seen that L. xylosteum but just thought it was a manky pale specimen!

 

Lonicera xylosteum.....small, easily missed pairs of flowers in May (up here)....leaves very soft and hairy.
A British native honeysuckle!
..............................................................................................

Thanks......that helps.
It helps knowing it is not one of the new cultivars.
Try Lonicera Henryi..introduced in 1908.
We used to grow it...evergreen./semi evergreen...climber .....very vigorous.
Mr Bean ....Says strigose....meaning covered with short, stiff adpressed hairs!
Flowers look right shape.
Little or no scent.

On www the flowers seem to be quite varied..see

André Briant, the European specialist of ornamental young plants => Welcome > Variety range > Access to varieties > Climbing plants

Lonicera henryi

Lonicera henryi - Trees and Shrubs Online
Quote from link above

"An evergreen or semi-deciduous climber with slender more or less densely strigose shoots. Leaves mostly oblong-lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 13⁄4 to 4 in. long, 1⁄2 to 15⁄8 in. wide, abruptly to gradually acuminate at the apex, rounded or cordate at the base, dark green above, paler and rather glossy beneath, downy only on the midrib and margins, sometimes almost glabrous; stalk 1⁄8 to 1⁄2 in. long. Flowers purplish red, produced during June at the end of the shoot in a cluster 2 or 3 in. across, each stalk twin-flowered. Corolla two-lipped, 3⁄4 in. across, the lips much reflexed, the tube 1⁄2 to almost 3⁄4 in. long, hairy within, glabrous outside. Stamens slightly downy. Style hairy, protruded 1⁄2 in. beyond the corolla. Bracts awl-shaped, about 1⁄4 in. long. Fruits blackish purple. Bot. Mag., t. 8375.

Native of W. China; introduced by Wilson in 1908 and later sent by Forrest. It is closely allied to the more ornamental L. alseuosmoides, which has narrower leaves and glabrous stems. At Trewithen in Cornwall a plant from Forrest’s seeds has climbed 30 ft into a laurel and would invade neighbouring trees if not continually cut back.

L. henryi varies slightly. Plants with larger, less hairy leaves and larger flowers have been named Rehd., but this variety is linked by transitions to the typical state and scarcely worth recognition."

 

I have Henryi in my garden, smooth stems and quite fragrant, just taken a pic.

 

In that case it does not match the very detail description in Bean.
eg Strigose.
Bean wrote the bible for trees and shrubs...THE gold standard.
He was curator at Kew.

"For the past century W J Bean’s Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles has been the pre-eminent reference to woody plants hardy in Britain and Ireland, usually referred to by gardeners simply as ‘Bean’. First published in 1914"

I wonder if it could be the other one..Lonicera alseuosmoides.....which has narrower leaves and glabrous stems.

Definition of glabrous. : smooth especially : having a surface without hairs .

Apologies if you knew meaning..this is for those who may not know what glabrous means.

L.onicera alseuosmoides, - Google Search
............................................................................

Over the years we bought several plants incorrectly labelled.
Not just tiny errors...huge wrong...completely different plants .
Some from big named nurseries.

 

Possible... the tawny colour I saw in the flowers isn't mentioned, but the rest looks appropriate eg the twin flowered stalks, no perfume. You're right about the variation as shown on the web - I suspect some photoshopping of the colours might have happened!. Thank you for solving this!

 

Gosh @Silver surfer i hope i haven't offened you I wouldn't even think to question your replies let alone alone a curator of Kew, maybe the variety "henryi" has changed over the years but the one that i have now is different than the one described.

 

Goodness mazambo......you haven't offended me at all.
I have got very cynical about nurseries /garden centres /correct names over the years.
Really it matters not to most people.

But I have a profound, deep respect for Bean.
His book comes in 5 volumes...the research./ measuring minute detail is just incredible.
If Bean says it is hairy ..then it blinking well should be.
Maybe yours was cross pollinated with another plant and is not true to species.

Just for interest do add pics to show the flowers when they open.

Liken it to cars.
Car X .....the dealers say has a square grill and round headlights and leather seats.
When it arrives the grill is oblong
It is not as advertised.
Grr.
Garages would never get away with it.

Forgive my rant!
...................................................................................

In Wales we wanted a special shrub .....Enkianthus cernuus rubens...with red flowers /zig zag
edges..
We would find one in a nursery and buy it.
Plant it and wait.
2 years later it would flower and it would be Enkianthus campanulatus...pale flowers edges scalloped...see first pic.
This happened on 8 occasions.
We never did get the one we wanted.
Until we moved here and bought the real McCoy from Glendoick nursery...see pic 2,3,4.

 

Oh dear @Silver surfer - that is a cute plant! On the list of wants...

 

@Silver surfer I've been among the shrubbery today and found the label for the honeysuckle, you were right, it is a cultivar? "Copper beauty"