Coral honeysuckle creates habitat

The coral honeysuckle flowers are attractive
to us and to pollinaors, especially hummingbirds.

Coral honeysuckle, an easy-to-grow native for Florida and beyond.

Coral honeysuckle or scarlet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is native to most of eastern North America from eastern Texas to Massachusetts, including all but the southernmost counties in Florida. It's in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae.

It has opposite leaves along each stem, but the leaves that subtend the inflorescence (flower head) are joined together. This is known as perfoliate leaves. 

The long tubular flowers, which are borne only on new wood, are especially favored by hummingbirds, but butterflies, bees, and moths also visit the flowers. After pollination, fruits, which are true berries, develop and are an important food source for many birds, especially the Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis). They also are the birds we seen most often nesting in the honeysuckle. 

The flower heads are subtended by perfoliated
leaves, which are joined together.

Honeysuckles are Bines, not Vines

A bit more botany here...

Vines use specialized stems (suckers and tendrils) to climb up a supporting structure such as a trellis or a tree. Common examples are grapes, English ivy, and Virginia creeper. 

Bines climb by winding shoots into a helix around a support. In addition to honeysuckle, some common bines are morning glories, pole beans, and hops.

Coral Honeysuckle in the Garden

It's easy to grow and manage in full sun or partial shade, but you'll need to provide some type of trellis or fencing so it can grow vertically. It blooms from early spring to late fall in Florida and its berries are produced from later spring into winter. Plant some near windows where you sit so you can enjoy the hummingbird activity.

It can be grown from softwood cuttings or from seed. While it puts or a good volume of new growth each year and reseeds to some extent, it's easy to trim back or transplant. Another bonus is that it's rarely eaten by deer because of the toxins. It sheds its leaves each year in its more northerly range, but it's mostly evergreen in Florida.

While it's a larval host for Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon) and Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) butterflies, I rarely see this activity in my yard. 

Coral honeysuckle covers a trellis around our outside shower.

This #MomentinNature photo was taken through our kitchen window.
I've used it in some of my presentations to inspire others to add this plant to their yards.  

This Cardinal's nest was one of many we've found over the years that have been built in the middle of honeysuckle tangles.

Our honeysuckle trellis served as a backdrop for this author photo for "Adventures of a Transplanted Gardener."

More information:

Here is the link to the FNPS plant profile for coral honeysuckle, which provides more information and a link to native plant vendors who have it in stock.  

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt