When a friend gave me tip cuttings from the sweet smelling shrub along her driveway, she said they would be easy to root in water and within a year my rootings would become shrubs like hers. She was sharing with me the experience she had when a neighbor had given her cuttings. Winter honeysuckle, Loncera fragrantissima, is a long–time passalong plant in southern gardens.

The cold hardy shrub is often found in old cemeteries and abandoned house sites. In contemporary landscapes, winter honeysuckle is used as a screen, hedge, background shrub or as a featured winterblooming specimen along a seasonal shrub border. Specimens are placed along pathways, near a gate, or at an entranceway so the fragrance may be enjoyed in the heart of winter. My thicket of winter honeysuckle is near the garden gate and along a path to a bird feeder so it is viewed daily.

From late December until early March the semideciduous shrub blossoms with pairs of small creamy white flowers tinged in pink lining the arching branches at the leaf buds. A lemony scent seems sprayed across the garden. The flowers attract bees at a time when few plants offer pollen and nectar.

Pairs of fragrant creamy white flowers erupt along the arching branches all winter long. By summer the flowers give way to red berries hidden within the leaves. Birds manage to find the seeds and over the years have planted many roadside ditches and woodlands of winter honeysuckle throughout the southeastern United States.

My shrub grows exceedingly well in partial shade and sandy acidic soil. Winter honeysuckle adapts to most soils and pH but needs a welldrained site. The shrub grows in hardiness zones 4-9.

Maximum height for the small shrub is 10 feet with an equal spread. Growing rapidly, the shrub tends to appear rampant and out of control. Pruning is best done after flowering and can be as gentle as removing one third of the old growth per year or as severe as cutting down to the ground. Whichever method is used, winter honeysuckle rebounds with vigor.

Robert Fortune, Scottish plant explorer, discovered winter honeysuckle in China in 1845. Scottish botanist and plant hunter Robert Fortune discovered the shrub in eastern China in 1845. He paved the way for each of us to discover the wonderful plant and its sweet breath of spring.