Does yours smell in the day, I've gone up to some that have got out of people's gardens and it kind of smells, does yours have a powerful scent in the day as well?
The perfume (orange blossom) wafts across the garden during the day. It's gorgeous.
I'm still bothered about the murder of native species at the hands of Japanese Honeysuckle (I know it sounds stupid at this point), can you convince me that won't happen? I love scented flowers but I'm worried about their impact on biodiversity.
I know that's the issue. I want to have a nice garden but also not wreck biodiversity/make the issue worse. I sometimes think about the same thing when it comes to my Wisteria, surely native climbing alternatives would be better for our wildlife than a non-native powerhouse that will quickly replace everything we have.
I know it's not a big issue in comparison to the hotter climates of the United States, but it just makes me wonder whether native plants would be better in the long run (considering a majority of them have fertile seeds so the plant can spread outside of my garden's bounds).
I want to know if I need to worry or not, I just don't really get a definitive answer anywhere, wildlife gardeners swear that non-native plants are not good for biodiversity but yet other people say they are, it is all very confusing. I would like nice flowers and such but if everything I do seems to wreck the wildlife balance here in the UK then why bother? Most of our native plants are not that interesting and not good for colour (hence why RHS Wisley is made up of mostly non-native plants).
If you wander along a country road and look at the flowers and grasses that cover the verges, you will find that our native plants are anything but dull or lacking in colour. I grow quite a few of them in my garden and right now I have red campion, lunaria purpurea, knapweed, foxglove, scabious, teasel and toadflax in flower whilst spring saw violets, primroses, dandelions, cowslips, plus a riot of white dead nettles and the ever popular stinging variety, followed by cow parsley and honesty. However the plant most popular with bees is a nepeta, the enormous Six Hills Giant which is not something you will find in a natural setting.
If you visit Cambridge Botanic Garden they have a Chronological Bed that shows when particular plants were introduced to this country. It is a shock to discover that plants that we think of as native have in fact been brought in from elsewhere. It's a wonder that we had anything growing here at all before the Romans arrived.
There have been disasterous introductions over the years such as ground elder (probably the Romans), Indian balsam (accidental), Japanese Knot Weed, rampant purple Rhododendrons. Obviously we need to guard against this sort of thing but certain imported plants do well here without running amok. That they go feral in other countries such as the US is down to things like climate and advantageous growing conditions. If my lonicera japonica was a problem then my neighbours gardens would now be covered in the stuff. The real thug is common ivy which I have to cut back regularly.
In a garden setting the native plants are quite happy mixed in with flowers that in many cases have been bred from native plants and the only worry is whether or not they will actually grow.
I recently discovered honeysuckle (don’t know the type) breaking through the gaps in my back garden fence. I cut it all away as I don’t like it and so don’t want it in my garden. I guess it was competing with the thorny brambles which I don’t really want growing through either. There’s just a footpath and small wild area parallel to a railway line behind my garden and I’ve seen the honeysuckle travel all the way along the path for about 200 metres. I can only assume it escaped out of someone’s garden at some point!
I suppose the point of this is to say to keep an eye on it and keep it trimmed if you want it in your garden.
Common honeysuckle is usually alright, can become a pest of sorts if it's too happy (especially if you want your garden neat and you didn't put it there) but I think Japanese Honeysuckle is way more likely to spread. Of course I won't be light when I prune mine as it loves to try and grab onto nearby plants and strangle them but as long as you do some form of maintenance you should be fine. Was our flora something like Iceland's (bland) before we began to bring things over with the many occupants we have had here?
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You won’t need to worry then.