PlantFiles: Hall's Honeysuckle
Lonicera japonica 'Halliana'

I know that this plant is supposed to be invasive, but I have had two growing on a wrought iron fence for 7 years and they have never gotten more than 6 ft high in my area and they definately are not spreading. One of them didn't make it through this past winter and I have had a hard time replacing it because of it's invasive reputation. I finally found another one on online and I'm thrilled. I am a responsible gardener and keep my plants trimmed.
On the other hand, my neighbor has a Forsythia that to me seems like an invasive plant. It is growing through the 4' stone wall that divides our properties and I constantly have to cut it back!

This is an exotic invasive, and banned in several New England states, and problematic in many others. It readily escapes into the wilds through being spread by birds, and should not be grown in the U.S.

We have three Hall's Honeysuckle in containers on a second floor balcony, so there are no issues with invasiveness. But like many others, I have found it to be a bit scraggly looking, with very few blooms, and scattered yellowing leaves. It keeps plugging away, though, with constant new growth.

I bought this plant when I lived in Oregon City, OR and I just loved it! I put it in my border, on the corner by the stairs, up against the west-facing wall at the 4-plex that I owned. At night, when you walked by you would catch a wiff of the fragrant blossoms and it just made you feel good. I never really had a problem with it being invasive, or overly sloppy. The only downside was that I wished I could have created a taller trellis for the plant so it could show off its beauty.

Yes, it does get a little straggly in the winter months, and some of the leaves do turn yellow, but hey, it's Oregon! And out here you just go with the flow. So you pick off the yellow leaves if they bother you, it's no big deal.

When I bought my house in Portland two years ago I purposely went looking for another honeysuckle to replace the one I left behind. I found a replacement honeysuckle two days ago and have it resting against the backyard chain link fence waiting to be transplanted. As soon as the rain lets up (later today) I'm going to tuck it into its new home. With a bit of luck, this plant will hide the (lovely) view of my neighbor's weed-ridden back yard, lol.

Several years ago I bought 2 Hall's Honeysuckles to grow on an arbor in part sun. They are growing nicely, not being invasive and smell wonderful when they bloom. Since I live in an arid region I don't think they will become a problem invading nearly areas. I haven't seen any small ones comming up anywhere. Also, the hardyness goes down to at least -18F and the plants still retain some green leaves.

There are uses for such an invasive plant. My son's newer house in an Atlanta suburb is on a steeply wooded lot, and the developer dug in a large underground pipe that drains the street for about 100 feet, and the pipe then opens into a large, deep ditch along the edge of my son's side yard. This ditch is huge--about 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep, and for several years it eroded into an even larger size, despite my son's efforts to terrace and plant ground covers. This ditch runs about 70 feet or so to cascade over a 12 foot drop into a very large "detention" pond.

This elaborate drainage system was mandated by the County and the State of Georgia to mitigate silt run off into the highly polluted Chattahoochee River about 15 miles away. However, the ditch was an eyesore and a dangerous attractant to all the little kids in the neighborhood, so my son fenced off the back yard, including the ditch, which was not an easy task.

While he was fencing, he noticed this very fragrant evergreen volunteer plant growing on one side of the bank, and I identified it as Hall's Honeysuckle, a well known plant from my Southern childhood. I knew it was invasive, but it seemed just the thing to tame this ugly ditch, and over the last three years the plant has covered one side of the bank, grown up the fence to make a nice screen for my son's backyard, and is starting to grow on the other side of the bank. Soon the ugly ditch will be just a mound of deep green, with fragrant flowers to waft to the back patio. Both my son and his neighbor keep the plant just in the ditch by mowing the centipede grass lawns that surround the ditch. As centipede grass is a runner grass that forms dense mats and competes quite well with just about anything, this makes a nice duo.

Of course we know it it invasive, but taking this one huge plant out won't make any difference--the species is naturalized--and it serves the quite useful purposes of controlling erosion and covering an eyesore. Sometimes you have to compromise, and it is a beautiful plant.

Japanese honeysuckle invades fields, forest edges and openings, disturbed woods, and floodplains, in eastern North America, where it spreads rapidly and outcompetes native vegetation by vigorous above- and below-ground competition. Once established, the vine may literally engulf small trees and shrubs, which collapse under the weight, and few plants survive beneath the dense canopy. It has also escaped cultivation at scattered locations in California and in Hawaii where it has the potential to become a severe pest in mesic and wet forest areas.

Japanese honeysuckle has few natural enemies in North America and is difficult to control once established. Thus, the best and most effective control method is to prevent its establishment by surveying a site for its presence regularly and immediately destroying every plant located. Unfortunately Japanese honeysuckle is difficult to locate when small and without careful attention may go unnoticed until it is well established.

Because Japanese honeysuckle is so difficult to control once established, an appropriate control program goal is 100% kill of all plants in the target area. Removing above-ground stems by cutting pulling or burning will temporarily weaken, but not kill, Japanese honeysuckle as it will resprout from subterranean buds and roots, and from cut branchlets.

Ordered bare roots online and planted them and forgot about them. I love things that grow beautifully even if neglected.

I ordered two of these from a catalogue that said they would grow and bloom in sun or shade and would cover a large area in the first year. I needed a climbing vine for a shaded area so fell for the pitch. This is the second year with no blooms and the growth is scraggly at best. There was no real soil in the area that I needed these so I planted them in large pots with good soil for better growth. Having read the other comments here, I'm glad that I kept them confined.

I read in a gardening book that it would be good for covering a huge hole in my fense so I got one. The problem was it hardy bloomed at all. I did not like it because it got too big, and had to be trimmed constandly. Much work but little reward.

Unattractive within a few years. Though rugged enough to live in the worst of circumstance (sandy soil, non-stop all day sun, neglect, etc.), the branching dies to the ground and resprouts off to unused directions in the spring. Also sprawled all over the ground (rooting) and into my neighbor's yard. It's just a pain to keep up with and not good looking enough to put up with it's workload. Maybe it'd be better in a small confined area so it wouldn't be such a fight. This is troublesome in bad soil/harsh conditions, I'm guessing it'd be a full time job in good soil/good conditions.

Great for the Great Lakes region. It is almost evergreen and very fragrant. Blooms almost all summer but most heavily in the spring. Every year it is thicker and taller. Put it on a tall trellis and it will screen everything.

This is an introduced plant, and here in the Mid-Atlantic states it is a pest. Birds scatter the seeds, and it creeps into, on, and over any plants, esp. shrubs, fencerows and shaded areas. It is very hard to eradicate - I spend a good portion of every year just keeping it at bay, but never defeating it. I have given up on fencerows, as the roots are impossible to get at, and they break off below ground, and resprout stronger than ever in days. Last fall I hauled a pickup load of roots away from one 2,000 s/f groundcover area. I first mowed it to the ground, after Hostas and Convallaria were dormant. The Ivy area and the Vinca areas will regrow, but it is a real pain to seperate the good roots from the bad. A couple of weeks work, just to keep it under moderate control.

Other, less invasive honeysuckles are fine - both vining and shrub forms. This one attacks like Kudzu does further to the south.