March 23, 2006

Woodbine, most commonly known as honeysuckle, can be a good alternative for raat-ki-rani and motia, explains Zahrah Nasir

The warm, heady perfume of woodbine permeates my garden as the sun comes up, as it beats strongly down and yet again when it starts its fiery descent behind the forested slopes and out of sight. As the stars come out and the moon rises and a gentle breeze tinkles the wind-chimes, this unforgettable fragrance continues to fill the air with dreams.

Woodbine –– one tobacco company even had the audacity to name a brand of cigarettes after it –– is a member of the ‘lonicera’ family of plants and will be better known to most of you as ‘honeysuckle’, that glorious climber which tends to run riot when given the chance.

There are an estimated 180 varieties of honeysuckle to be found throughout the northern hemisphere and then on down to the Philippines. In Pakistan, we have approximately 20 known species some of which are indigenous, other introduced and the cultivated varieties can be successfully grown in most areas of the country including, surprisingly enough, Karachi.

‘Lonicera japonica’ or Japanese honeysuckle, has also played an important role in Chinese herbal medicine for literally hundreds and hundreds of years. ‘Lonicera caprifolium’ and ‘lonicera periclymenum’ are also listed in some herbals but are rarely used nowadays as, unless correctly administered, all honeysuckle remedies can be toxic!

Much safer is relying on honeysuckle perfume from fresh flowers, extracted oil, soaps and all sorts of lotions and potions, which has a reputation for, amongst many other things, relieving headaches and reducing blood pressure.

The plant contains something called ‘salicylic acid’ from which aspirin was originally made and which is, possibly, why the heady perfume of its pretty flowers has gained the curative reputation they bear and which makes honeysuckle oil such an important ingredient for those practicing aromatherapy.

There are three varieties of honeysuckle in my own garden; ‘lonicera japonica’ is currently in bloom where it fights for space with perennial sweet pea lathyrus latifolius, over and around the wood-store; lonicera quinquelocularis, a wild honeysuckle, only flowering in the spring, has clambered over 15 feet up an old apple tree and should burst in to bloom any day now, and lonicera tartarica, a shrub variety grown from seed four years ago, is thriving in a huge pot by the front door but shows no promise of flowers as yet.

‘Lonicera japonica’ is the gardeners’ favourite in most parts of the world where the climate is suitable for growing this almost evergreen, vigorous climbing and rambling plant. The strongly aromatic flowers can be plain yellow, a mixture of yellow and white or of yellow and pink with a much darker, almost crimson cast to both the un-opened buds and the leaf stalks, too.

If grown from seed you will have to wait, very patiently, maybe five or six years for the plants to bloom so it is much better to propagate it from either woody cuttings, taken when the parent plant is not in flower, or, even easier and far more reliable, to allow the parent plant to send out lots of runners along the ground. These will root themselves as they go and all you need to do is to snip off the rooted runner when it is large enough to stand up for itself and grow on its own. Weighing the runner down into the soil with a stone or keeping it in place with a cane or wooden peg, speeds up the rooting process even further.

These rooted cuttings should start to produce their wonderful flowers within twelve months from planting out in a suitable location. In hot places such as Karachi, honeysuckle needs to be grown in a shady spot as it does not like the extremely high temperatures at all. This also goes for Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar during the long, hot summers.

However, honeysuckle does relish the warmth of winter sunshine, therefore, planting it in the shade of trees and shrubs which lose their leaves during the winter period in these locations can be the answer as it is impossible to keep transplanting it from sun to shade and back again on a seasonal basis!

Soil conditions need to be humus rich, with plenty of organic manure worked in and the plants will need a reasonable amount of water during the hot, dry seasons of the year if they are to grow and flourish. Climbing and rambling members of the honeysuckle family may flower on and off throughout the year in all areas of Pakistan other than cold upland locations which experience freezing winter temperatures and heavy snow, during which period honeysuckle prefers to take a winter sleep.

These woody stemmed climbers are a high speed solution to disguising unsightly objects such as garages, water tanks, fences and other such objects. They can be grown, to very good effect, on strategically placed wooden, not metal, trellises to provide privacy where you want it most or grown in amongst other climbers, although, beware, as the honeysuckle may just decide to completely take over something as delicate as Plumbago for example, in a mixed planting along a boundary fence or wall.

Honeysuckle can also be grown in very large plant pots, the shrub varieties being most suitable for this as they don’t mind being restricted to a certain degree, and then make a magnificent addition to a shady veranda where you can relax and soak up their incredible perfume in the evening hours after a long day in the office or a frantic day chasing the children around. Plants such as raat-ki-rani and motia are more traditionally utilised for this purpose but why not give honeysuckle a try for a change?

By the way, and I almost forgot this, if you prune back your honeysuckle plants immediately after flowering they should quickly come in to bloom again. And, if your plants start, for whatever reason, to look a little ‘tatty’, then don’t be afraid of giving them a heavy ‘hair cut’ where needed, followed by a good, nourishing, organic meal and a nice ‘talking too’ and they will, more than likely, reward you to no end. n

Send your queries at zahrahnasir@hotmail.com Answers will appear in a future issue of 'The Review'.

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