Re: Lonicera

Perhaps you did'nt get my first message, I was saying that you need at least 2 plants for better cross pollination. In the article they exactly say : "plants tend to be self sterile, so choose two unrelated plants for good cross-pollination". I don't understand what "unrelated' means. Is it 2 different varieties or 2 different species ? All that I know is that if you collect seeds from a variety, you're not sure at all to get a similar plant with the same flower color or any other specificity. Perhaps it's the reason why you don't have fruits or your honeysuckle is simply too young. 

Chantal Guiraud
Montpellier, France


Le 3 avr. 07 à 21:54, Diane Whitehead a écrit :
The first message was part of the thread on growing blueberries in Greece.
I saw a row of edible honeysuckle growing at a lily breeder's in Oregon in 1998, grown from seeds from Latvia. The fruit was delicious, so I scraped a few seeds out of the next berry I ate, and have one small plant, 23 cm high, which hasn't fruited yet. One advantage the honeysuckle has over blueberries is that it doesn't require acid soil. That is a benefit for some people, but I have poor acid soil, while the lily nursery was on deep pumice on the slopes of Mt Hood. Maybe I should fertilize my plant with some wood ash from my stove.
There is information available in the archives of NAFEX, ( North American Fruit Explorers ). Do a search on "edible honeysuckle NAFEX" and you'll find out about retired professor Dr. Maxine Thompson who is breeding them in Oregon. She found that Japanese plants are healthier than Siberian ones in Oregon's wet winter climate. 


Diane Whitehead
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