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Lonicera hildebrandiana
2 August 2010
The giant Burmese honeysuckle is an absurd plant to grow in England. Roy Lancaster introduced me to it in his characteristically enthusiastic way, not mentioning that if it was given free rein it would take over the whole conservatory. Everything about it is supersize. The four-inch flowers, white to start with, then fading yellow, look as though beaky turbo-birds, bats or lurid moths should be pollinating them - and their scent goes beyond suggestive.
I keep it in a 10 inch pot, shelter it in the greenhouse in winter and lodge it (in the pot) behind an olive tree on the south wall in summer. It clambers into the branches and nearly smothers them with its huge shiny leaves, but I'm afraid the pot prevents it expressing itself to the full.
Who was Hildebrand? A Teutonic folk hero, an 11th century pope (Gregory VII) from Tuscany, Ildibrando di Sovana) to whom stupendous works are credited by the locals). Maybe a botanist too?
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