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Lonicera (Climbing) - Care Guide
Climbing Lonicera - Growing Guide
Honeysuckle
Most climbing Lonicera are deciduous although there are a small number of evergreen species. There are few genuinely evergreen climbers which can cover a trellis or pergola but L. henryi and L. henryi ‘Copper Beauty’ certainly qualify.
Climbing honeysuckles are suitable for growing up walls or fences but they do need trellis or wires to curl around at least initially. More vigorous climbers like L. japonica ‘Halliana’ can grow up to 30ft and are therefore suitable for training up elderly or dead trees which they will readily grip and twist around and through themselves.
Other climbing Lonicera are less vigorous and 6-10ft in height is more normal for popular species and varieties such as periclymanum ‘Graham Thomas’, tragophylla ‘Maurice Foster’ or x tellmanniana.
All climbing honeysuckles are fully hardy and prefer fertile improved soil in full sun or partial shade. Light pruning back of the flowering shoots on the previous year’s growth in winter or early spring will certainly improve the flowering performance in the next season. Those varieties which flower on the previous year’s shoots such as L. periclymanum are best pruned back to strong new growth immediately after flowering.
Evergreen honeysuckles are best propagated from semi ripe cuttings in summer. Deciduous varieties can be propagated from soft greenwood new growths in summer or hardwood cuttings in the autumn.
Plants
