Honeysuckle

Woodbine honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) is the European honeysuckle of hedgerows, grown for the scent as much as the flower: the tubular cream and yellow blooms, flushed red or purple in cultivars like 'Serotina' and 'Belgica', are beautiful, but the fragrance in the evening is extraordinary and carries across a garden. It is a twining woody vine to 15 or 20 feet that needs a fence, trellis or tree to climb.

Plant it with its roots in shade and its top in sun, in rich, moist soil that drains, as at a woodland edge, and water until it is established. Prune right after flowering to control the size and to encourage next year's flowers, which form on the previous season's growth; an overgrown plant can be cut hard in late winter and will take a year to recover. Aphids cluster on the new shoots in spring and the plant shrugs them off.

The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued moths at dusk, which is why the scent is strongest then, and the red berries that follow feed thrushes and other birds. As cut material the flowering tips make a fragrant trailing element in summer arrangements; cut in the cool of the morning and condition them in water at once. Unlike the Japanese honeysuckle it is not invasive in North America, but it does self-sow a little.