We have honeysuckle growing in our yard. While it was flowering I wondered if it was useful for anything besides keeping my children occupied with harvesting nectar. So I googled it and here is what I found.
The honeysuckle flowers, buds, and stems are used medicinally. It is reputed to be of great use in treating coughs and asthma. I am going to dry some flowers to have on hand in my herbal cupboard. I also found a recipe for a cough syrup that I want to make and keep in the freezer for the winter. It is also used as a tea.
You can make honeysuckle wine. I might try this. The last time I made wine I had it racked and aging when a cork shot out of one of the bottles and wine went shooting out across the laundry room and kitchen. I had just painted the walls a creamy white weeks before. Oh, and it didn't taste very good.
It can be made into jelly with a basic flower jelly recipe.
Perfume It takes a lot of flowers to make a tiny bit of perfume but I thought my little girls would enjoy making this.
The flowers are edible so you can add them to salads or use them to infuse drinking water.
I also read that the vines are used in basket weaving.
Who knew that something considered a weed could have so many uses. So, what have I done with the honeysuckle so far? I'm ashamed to say nothing. I did this research while I was in my first week of recovery from surgery and stuck in the recliner with my foot propped up. I am adding harvesting and drying the flowers to this weeks to do list though. Oh, and the children made some honeysuckle water a few times.
