Cape Honeysuckle

Hi! Everybody!!!

About a month ago, I purchased a plant from Home Depot that was labeled as a Cape Honeysuckle. It was further described as maturing at 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide. Now it has a lot of new growth so there is no problem there. My question is how do I train it up the trellis? Or does it even need a trellis? I am novice just learning so if any of you have comments, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Chuck

My Cape Honeysuckle is more of a bush than a vine, though it does send out long runner thingies from the bottom.

Calalily,

How big did your Cape Honeysuckle get? I know from looking at the plant that it looks more like a bush than a vine, although I always thought that honeysuckles were vines. Thanks for replying so quickly.

Chuck

I just bought two from home depot as well and was interested in the same question.

Hi Chuck,
I'm also familiar only with a shorter shrub type that gets to around 8' tall if untrimmed (or maybe I've only seen them trimmed, lol). It's used a lot around here since it needs little water once established. Many here grow it tall up against a house wall or keep it trimmed for a foundation or fence plant. It does sprawl a bit if allowed to grow freely but it can be cut back for dense growth and also so it doesn't get real woody at the base. There's some near me that are kept shaped to the arches of an existing iron fence and it's very pretty.

Not sure how tall it gets if not pruned. I cut mine back in the winter to about 4 ft, they are over my head again. Sometimes they send out runner things and if you don't keep those trimmed off, the Cape Honeysuckle will take over, at least it does down here.
I layer the runners and when they're rooted I cut them from the mother plant. Hummers love the flowers and it blooms all the time(except when we had the freeze)
I've seen them pruned to a hedge in a couple of gardens, they keep them about 3 ft high, not as many flowers though.

My mother started with one and ended up with a hedge about 30 ft long. Had to remove it eventually as the roots got into the old clay water pipes underneath and broke them. She still has a few off shoots in the back yard. I took a couple and keep them in pots. I have the orange and also a salmon pink one.
Jan...

Jan, that's what my friend Cathy said hers did. She dug it out and it still comes back. Mine has been here a long time and it's still in one spot. I hope it keeps behaving!
I bet the salmon pink one is pretty too!

While in Tampa, Florida, I saw an orange one that was thirty feet up a utility pole - absolutely gorgeous!

shesh
now I feel guilty for confining mine to a hanging basket.....LOL

Does the Honeysuckle do well in the pots? Do they over-winter ok being in pots? I just bought my wife a Honeysuckle plant today and we're afraid that it might take over everything. I would keep it pruned though. If planted in the ground, will the roots send out sucker's? The tag say's that it will grow to 20' plus.

Thanx!

The cape honeysuckle may act like a vine or a bush depending on where you put it. At one house, one was planted on front of a trellis and it prodeded to send out runners and climb up the trellis. It went about 3' over the top of the trellis and stopped growing taller at that point. It definitely acted like a vine. Got three more and planted them with no trellis and nothing for them to climb on and they grown and act like a bush. At the 1 yr point the one with the trellis was around 10' tall. The 3 with no trellis and nothing to climb on are only around 3' tall, but 3 times as wide as the one on the trellis. I think I'll put a trellis by one of the three that are acting like bushes and see if it will start acting like a vine. Pretty plants.

Cape honeysuckle will grow until removed with an atom bomb. It will eat your car and then start on your house. (Can you tell it is not my favorite plant?) Just put it next to what ever you want it to cover and add a judicious tie or two.

Frogs, I take it you don't like Cape Honeysuckle!
Crankygardener, I grew a Pink Lemonade honeysuckle vine in a pot for years. It grew thru the holes in the pot and anchored it'self to the ground, but didn't send out runners. It grew up an arbor and did very well. What kind of honeysuckle did you buy?

Love honeysuckle but not that one. Pink lemonade is on the to buy list for summer.

I loved Pink Lemonade, I wish I'd brought it with me, but didn't even think about it till we'd already moved. It has a wonderful fragrance in the evenings.

Calalily, I'm not sure what kind of honeysuckle we bought. The picture on the tag show's it with yellow and white flowers. I've been thinking about getting a 4x4 post to let it grow up. Right now it's only about 2' tall. Are they really fast growers?

Yes, they grow pretty fast. The post sounds like a good idea. I had one with dark foliage that had yellow and white flowers. It smelled good. I forget which one it was, I got it in a trade.