Bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange'
Diervilla 'G2X88544' (Kodiak Orange) ·
New growth of glowing orange, small yellow flowers in summer, and brilliant orange-red autumn colour, on a tough, mounding native shrub.
- Size
- 3½ ft tall, 3½ ft wide
- Zones
- 4 to 7
- Light
- Full sun to part shade
- Flowers
- Mid June to early August
- Pets
- Not checked
- Job in a bed
- Drift
A bed built around bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange'
The planner designed this bed around bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) English border in zone 6, part sun. It chose the other plants from the 341 that suit those conditions and its dry soil, and says below why bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' × 1, yellow
- 2 Blue moor grass × 8, purple
- 3 Leadwort × 16, blue
- 4 Brown-eyed Susan × 3, yellow
- 5 European columbine × 5, pink
- 6 Coral bells 'Berry Smoothie' × 5, red leaves
- 7 Crocus × 12, white
Why this plant
- The only trumpets. The others are spires, dense clusters, daisies and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
- Part of the bed's structure. Shrubs and grasses keep their shape when the perennials die down. So does blue moor grass.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 3½ ft it is among the tallest plants here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to European columbine (2½ ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- One plant, alone. A shrub is seen as an object, and needs clear ground around it.
Why now
- In flower for 9 weeks. From mid June to early August.
- Fills a gap. For four of those weeks nothing else on the plan is in flower.
Planned as an English border: 6 of the 6 groups (100%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. Cool colours (purple, blue and pink) with yellow as the warm note, and white to calm things between them. The bed is balanced: the left half carries 55% of the visual weight and the right half 45%.
The planner's own design check: 13 Excellent, 3 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' goes in a border
At 3½ ft it belongs in the middle of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is moderately tall (3 to 4 ft).
Its job: drift. Planted in a small group of three or five, and repeated further along in the other number.
It grows in dry shade under trees, on banks and in poor soil, where few shrubs colour at all. Not related to the invasive honeysuckles. It suckers gently.
- Dry shade
- Covering banks
- Autumn colour in difficult places
What to plant with bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange'
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Pennsylvania sedge: its green leaves are a setting for the flowers, before and after; low enough (8 in) to stand in front of it.
- Bigroot cranesbill: in flower together for two weeks, from mid June; low enough (16 in) to stand in front of it; happy in the same dry soil.
- Fragrant sumac 'Gro-Low': flowers first, mid April to early May, so the spot is never empty; low enough (24 in) to stand in front of it; happy in the same dry soil.
Questions about bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange'
Does bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' need sun or shade?
Bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day), part sun (4 to 6 hours of sun, including some afternoon sun) and part shade (2 to 4 hours of sun, mostly in the morning).
It wants dry, sharply drained soil, of average fertility, and little watering once settled.
What zones does bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' grow in?
USDA zones 4 to 7. It is hardy to zone 4, which means it survives winter nights down to about −20 °F (−29 °C).
Above zone 7 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers mid June to early August. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 4 | Late June to mid August |
|---|---|
| Zone 5 | Mid June to early August |
| Zone 6 | Mid June to early August |
| Zone 7 | Early June to early August |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' be planted?
3 ft (90 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 3½ ft (100 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 3½ ft (100 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' plants do I need?
At 3 ft apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 1 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 4 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 4 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as a group of three or five, with a second group further along in the other number.
In the bed above, the planner used one in one group.
Is there a native plant like bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange'?
Bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' is not native to North America. These North American natives come closest to doing its job:
- Golden St John's wort 'Sunburst': the same job in a bed, the same size, the same flowering time and the same colour.
- New Jersey tea: the same job in a bed and the same size; flowers mid June to mid July, white, not yellow.
- Bluestar 'Storm Cloud': the same job in a bed; 12 in shorter, 4 in narrower.
Matched the way the planner's Swap button matches plants: the same job in a bed, then size, then flowering time.
Will bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' spread?
It spreads sideways, by runners or roots; the risk of it taking over is moderate. Spreads slowly by suckers into a wide clump. Suited to banks and massing.
What flowers after bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange'?
Bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' is over by early August. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Japanese anemone: from mid August to early October, 3 ft tall.
- Lilyturf: from early August to mid September, 16 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Hosta 'Guacamole': from early August to late August, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
What does bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' look like in winter?
Bush honeysuckle 'Kodiak Orange' drops its leaves and stands as bare branches. That is when to see its shape, and to prune it if it needs pruning.
More Diervilla
- Northern bush honeysuckle Diervilla lonicera
In these guides
Every fact on record
- Type
- Shrub
- Size
- 3½ ft (100 cm) tall, 3½ ft (100 cm) wide
- Plant
- 3 ft (90 cm) apart
- Height class
- Moderately tall (3 to 4 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Middle
- Flowers
- Mid June to early August; trumpets; yellow
- Leaves
- Medium texture, deciduous; green, bronze
- Shape
- Mounding, spreading
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 4 to 7
- Light
- Full sun, part sun, part shade
- Soil
- Average, dry and sharply drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
Not yet checked against an outside reference: its figures rest on general horticultural knowledge. Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.