Kodiak® Black Bush Honeysuckle

As low as $59.99 was $79.99
Availability: In stock
SKU
6984004

For intense color and rugged nature, order a reliable shrub that is worth its weight in gold! The Proven Winners® Kodiak® Black Diervilla (Diervilla rivularis 'SMNDRSF') is an easy solution to even your worst landscape challenges! It is a rugged high performer for full sun, part sun, or shade locations. Kodiak can take just about any soil type, as well. Kodiak® Black is rarely damaged by deer. It's disease-resistant, pest-free, and truly easy care! This versatile plant is a rare gem!

Best of all? It's absolutely breathtaking!

Kodiak® Black Bush Honeysuckle is a deciduous, multi-stemmed shrub with a dense nature and mounding habit. It features extraordinary dark, burgundy-black foliage! You'll love the way the clusters of yellow, trumpet-shaped blooms stand out against the dramatic leaves!

From early summer through the fall, each delicate blossom features protruding, white stamens for an additional decorative note. The effect of the yellow against the deep, contrasting color of the leaves is gorgeous. Butterflies, honey bees and Hummingbirds love them, too.

The foliage color is most intense in spring and fall, with autumn tones deepening to a burnished purple. Kodiak® Black Bush Honeysuckle provides that arresting display, exhibiting deep burgundy hues so dark that they're almost black in tone. The glossy foliage is most impressive in full sun (or part shade), and Kodiak® Black Bush Honeysuckle is one of the best shade-tolerant shrubs you'll find on the market today.

This native cultivar may be called "Bush Honeysuckle" but it is not invasive! It simply spreads politely and keeps to itself without jumping any borders. Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle thrives in sun or shade, and is a sound ecological choice. Growing 3-4 feet in height and spreading 4-5 feet wide, these vigorous and incredibly adaptable shrubs thrive throughout USDA growing zones 5 to 7.

Planting and Application:

You can even grow these in outdoor containers as your Filler plants. Use several Kodiak® Black plants around your centered Thriller or focal point plant. The deliciously dark foliage is bound to make your Thriller pop! Or use the dramatic dark foliage as the Thriller and skirt it in Spillers like golden Creeping Jenny, soothing green Blue Rug Juniper, or equally dark and dramatic Black Scallop Ajuga!

Savvy property owners know that low-maintenance plants are a great idea! Why not use this sun and shade-tolerant shrub as the mainstay of your easy-care garden design? Consider this your "go-to" landscape solution to cover ground and fill wide, open areas with knockout color. Modern homes can use these shrubs en masse in wide planting beds. Save a little room for a few bright flowering accent plants, and you'll be ready to relax in your space.

The foliage color is sophisticated enough to hold its own in high-end formal landscapes. But it's absolutely charming in Cottage gardens or as accents in modern courtyards, as well. Leverage their rich, dark leaves to add depth to all of your plantings, and you'll tie the entire design together.

Allow it to create natural-looking drifts for a very appealing look with a touch of visual drama! The only thing you'll really have to do is plan for Kodiak® Black to reach its full mature spread. Plant them 3 ½ feet apart on center, measuring from the center of one to the center of the next. They'll grow together and touch.

Use Bush Honeysuckle as a mid-sized, low-maintenance groundcover to add depth to the look of your garden beds. Stop trying to mow a dangerous hillside by planting these flowering shrubs instead! Halt soil erosion on those same hills or along the upper banks of a water feature, stream or pond. Allow these durable plants to spread out in a mounded form. They'll fill in your wide, open areas with brilliant color, butterflies and songbirds!

Use Kodiak® Black as an accent shrub throughout your butterfly gardens, and around Rock gardens, and because of that dramatic fall color, it’s especially wonderful to use where you'll see it during halftime at your Football Watch parties or around the fall firepit!

Include these all along the mid-ground of your mixed shrub border or as low hedges. They'll make a fantastic contrast in front of flowering trees and taller shrubs. Use them as a solid backdrop for smaller perennials in a Butterfly Garden. Of course, you can also add them to your foundation planting for a bold, deep foliage accent. What could be more captivating? The eye can't help but be drawn to such a dramatic color, so different from the expected greens and bright flower tones usually present.

Have you heard of Black Gardens? They are a trendy take on the traditional Moon Garden, using a reverse of the traditional all-white garden border. Kodiac Black should definitely be considered for these unusual, restful retreats.

Wherever you place them, be sure to snip them regularly to include the lush foliage in your cut flower arrangements! We'd call Kodiak® Black Bush Honeysuckle a "plant it and forget about it" plant if it wasn't so pretty! You'll notice these plants every day, although you won't have to fuss over them!

  • Bright Yellow Flowers Draw Butterflies
  • Dramatic Burgundy-Purple Foliage & Stems
  • Native Cultivar is Well-Behaved & Not Invasive
  • Great Soil Stabilizer for Slopes & Embankments
  • Create Fantastic Focal Points, Hedges & Backdrops With Very Little Maintenance

#ProPlantTips for Care:

For the best foliage color, plant it in full sun where it will get 6 or more hours of sun a day. However, it will also perform well in partially shady areas. We've seen it do well even in shade situations. Provide a consistent, moderate amount of water on a regular basis for best results. It is adaptive to a variety of soils and quite hardy. Every other year, add a top dressing of a three-inch layer of arborist mulch. You'll keep the root system cool and moist. Mulch between plants also helps keep new mass plantings weed-free. 

You can easily keep them manicured with regular pruning in early spring to shape or shorten them. Or, let it do its thing for a more natural look. Should you need to prune, do so in the late winter or early spring.

  • Grows Well in Full Sun, Part Shade or Full Shade
  • Wide Range of Well-Drained Soil Types
  • Regular Moderate Moisture Needs
  • Prune If Needed - Late Winter or Early Spring
  • Deer Tend to Leave it Alone

Kodiak® Black Bush Honeysuckle is one of the Proven Winners® series so you can be assured of its performance in your own yard year after year. Order enough to complete your project today from NatureHills.com and gain the most versatile, adaptable flowering ornamental shrub possible!

Buying Options for Plants

Nature Hills sells a large variety of plants with several options available. Plants are offered in both potted containers and as dormant bare root without soil. Here is a helpful resource to understand your options as you create a beautiful landscape with help from Nature Hills.

Ever wonder what a larger plant will mean for your landscape? Container Sizes are really all about the age of the plant!

Seasonally, Nature Hills offers hand selected, high quality bare root trees, shrubs and perennials. Bare root plants are sold by height from the top of the root system to the top of the plant. Plants may be taller than the height minimums.

  • Popular sizes of select trees are 1 foot, 2 feet, 3 feet, etc.
  • Popular sizes of select bare root plants is 1 foot, 18 inches, etc.

Nature Hills Container Size by Volume

Keep in mind, specific varieties and different growing conditions can affect the rate at which plants grow. Variations in size may occur.

Young Plants to 18 Months
Size Volume
2"x2"x3" Ranges from .18 to .21 dry quarts / .198 to .23 dry liters in volume
4.5" Container Equal to .65 dry quart / .72 dry liter in volume
Sprinter Pot Equal to .63 dry quart / .69 dry liter in volume
4" Container Ranges from .31 to .87 / .35 to .96 dry liter in volume
6" Container Equal to 1.4 dry quarts / 1.59 dry liters in volume
1 Quart Equal to 1 dry quart / 1.1 dry liter in volume
5.5" Container Equal to 1.89 of a dry quart / 2.08 dry liters in volume
4"x4"x5" Ranges from .8 to 1.1 dry quarts / .88 to 1.2 dry liters in volume
4"x4"x6" Ranges from 1.0 to 1.3 dry quarts / 1.1 to 1.41 dry liters in volume
4"x4"x9" Ranges from 1.1 to 2.1 dry quarts / 1.2 to 2.3 dry liters in volume
4"x4"x10" Ranges from 1.7 to 2.3 dry quart / 1.87 to 2.53 dry liters in volume
Plants 18 Months - 2.5 Years Old
Size Volume
2 Quart Equal to 2 dry quarts / 2.2 dry liters in volume
#1 Container Ranges from 2.26 to 3.73 dry quarts / 2.49 to 4.11 dry liters in volume
5"x5"x12" Equal to 3.5 to 4.3 dry quarts / 3.85 to 4.74 dry liters in volume
Plants 2 - 4 Years Old
Size Volume
#2 Container Ranges from 1.19 to 1.76 dry gallons / 5.24 to 7.75 dry liters in volume
#3 Container Ranges from 2.32 to 2.76 dry gallons / 10.22 to 12.16 dry liters in volume
Plants 3 - 5 Years Old
Size Volume
#5 Container Ranges from 2.92 to 4.62 dry gallons / 12.86 to 20.35 dry liters in volume
#6 Container Ranges from 5.25 to 6.01 dry gallons / 23.12 to 26.42 dry liters in volume
#7 Container Ranges from 5.98 to 6.08 dry gallons / 26.34 to 26.78 dry liters in volume

About Plant Sentry™

Plant Sentry is designed to protect both consumers and the nursery trade from invasive plant pests and diseases. Sites that display the Plant Sentry protection badge are protected from consumers buying and nurseries shipping material carrying invasive pests and diseases.

This proprietary eCommerce software prevents the shipment of a restricted plant to each state. The Plant Sentry system includes a shipment certification program. The Plant Sentry Compliance Officer works closely with NatureHills.com and each nursery or fulfillment center to ensure only compliant plants are sold to customers.

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Plant Sentry

Shipping

To obtain a more accurate shipment time-frame, simply enter your zip code in the “Find Your Growing Zone” box to the right. Our plants are grown all over the country and lead time on items may be different because of this. Once your order is placed, you will also receive the specific shipment time-frame information as part of your order confirmation. Once an item ships, you will receive shipment notification and tracking numbers, so you can follow along while your plant travels to your doorstep. We use FedEx, UPS, or USPS at our discretion.

Due to winter weather we have put a hold on shipping to the areas shown below in grey. You can still order now and we will ship the plant to you during an appropriate time for your zone.

*If you have found your zone already, it will be highlighted in the table below.
Color Zone Times
3 Spring 2019
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Shipping Rates

At Nature Hills we handle, package and ship the products you order with the utmost care to ensure healthy delivery. Shipping and handling charges are calculated based on the tables below. Please note that some items include an additional handling surcharge, these will be noted on the item's product page.

From To S&H
0 - 19.99 24.99
20 - 49.99 29.99
50 - 69.99 34.99
70 - 99.99 39.99
100 - 129.99 44.99
130 - 149.99 48.99
150 - 150+ Approx 28%

Click here to see our full rates

PLANT HIGHLIGHTS

Kodiak® Black Bush Honeysuckle Is Suited to Grow in Zones 5-7
Growing Zones 5-7
More Information
Brand Proven Winners ColorChoice
Botanical Name Diervilla rivularis 'SMNDRSF'
Type Deciduous
Mature Height 3 - 4 feet
Mature Spread 4 - 5 feet
Sun Exposure Full Sun, Full Shade
Soil Adaptable to Most Soils
Moisture Moderate
Growth Rate Medium
Foliage Color Burgundy-Purple
Fall Color Burgundy / Purple
Pollinator Friendly Yes
Pruning Time Early Spring
Photos courtesy of Proven Winners, Inc - www.provenwinners.com