Lonicera nitida Garden Clouds Green Breeze - Box Honeysuckle

Lonicera nitida Garden Clouds® Green Breeze is a selection of Honeysuckle with boxwood-like leaves, naturally dense, beautifully rounded in habit and perfect for replacing the boxwood. This shrub is easy to grow, it tolerates pruning well and has lush green foliage throughout the year. Ideal for topiary or low hedges, it grows faster than boxwood, adapts to different growing conditions and is relatively disease-resistant.

Lonicera Garden Clouds belong to the Caprifoliaceae family. They are a series of Dutch cultivars that are very easy to shape, for example into a ball or pyramid. Their parent, Lonicera nitida, is a robust evergreen shrub native to the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan. The Green Breeze cultivar reaches about 1m (3 ft 4 in) in all directions by the age of 10, and even larger if left to grow freely. This shrub usually only requires pruning once per year, depending on its growing conditions. Its evergreen leaves are small, leathery and glossy, with a light green colour that is almost lime green when they emerge, bright green in summer, and darker green in autumn and winter. It produces small, cream-white flowers in spring, which are quite inconspicuous. The small purple fruits, toxic but enjoyed by birds, are rarely seen in cultivation and only develop if the plant is left unpruned. This shrub usually regrows from its stump after a particularly harsh winter.

Plant Lonicera Garden Clouds Green Breeze in any well-drained soil, even limestone, that isn't too dry.  It prefers partial shade or light sun. Primarily a foliage plant, Boxleaf Honeysuckle tolerates severe pruning which should be carried out just after winter or after flowering. Allow 50 to 70 cm (19.7 to 27.6 in) of space between plants for hedge planting. This shrub is resistant to air pollution and also tolerates moderate drought once established.  It is perfect for low hedges, large borders, or beautiful plant sculptures, trimmed into balls or pyramid shapes, both in the ground and in pots. This Boxleaf Honeysuckle can also be left to grow freely in woodland areas.