Honeysuckle leaves turning black

SJo · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 26 May 2014 Posts: 4

Hello all,

I bought 4 of Aldi's honeysuckle (Lonicera Serotina) plants to climb the pergola and planted them about 10 days ago. The leaves of each of the plants are turning black and starting to curl. This happened within about 5-7 days of planting them. (Photo attached).

We have very clumpy, yellow, wet soil so we dug a reasonably-deep hole for each of the plants and added a layer of pretty well-rotted homemade garden compost into the bottom of each, in-filling with multipurpose compost. There is a layer of membrane on the surface, with bark mulch on top.

The pergola faces west/south west. There is a small Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus Quinquefolia) on it already which is doing pretty well. We had a Jasmine (Trachelospermum Jasminoides) on it last year which quickly died, but the rest of the garden is doing well; I don't manage to kill EVERYTHING I plant! Smile

Can anyone please shed any light on what is happening, and please suggest a possible remedy before it is too late for the poor plants?!

Many thanks!

Greengage · Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 6:54 pm Post subject:

AH Yes Aldi maybe it was misnamed and you have Lonicera japonica 'Purpurea'
bet it came in from the continent someone trying to flog a job lot. Then again maybe im wrong lets see what others come up with.

SJo · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 26 May 2014 Posts: 4

Thank you very much for your reply Greengate.

You may very well be right. No leaves have yet fallen off and the plants appear to be thriving - lots of fresh new growth on each one. I guess only time will tell!

tippben · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 11:34 am Post subject:

Greengage may very well be right, but I think it looks like shock caused by the drastic change in temperature and conditions when it was planted. As long as it's growing well I wouldn't worry.

SJo · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 26 May 2014 Posts: 4

Thank you Tippben!

Apart from the black leaves, to the best of my very limited knowledge, it definitely appears to be flourishing.

SJo · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 26 May 2014 Posts: 4

A little update to say the Honeysuckles are totally thriving! They have loads of new growth and have increased in height by about a foot already!

The new growth is green and the black spots on the leaves have faded somewhat, though those leaves are a bit curled. It doesn't appear to be doing the plant any harm anyway.

Thanks again for the replies.

cooler · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 3:50 pm Post subject:

Another good result for the forum helpers SJo. The plant must prefer your garden to Aldi. Laughing