Honeysuckle - maintenance

KenHy

I have a plant which I think is Lonicera/Honeysuckle

It was put in quite mature and really is just too big for the space that it's in. It's a climber up against a high wall, but it's very bare mostly up to about 6 ft high and then some leaves/flowers higher up. I'm inclined to prune it right back to 2/3 foot from the ground.

However there are many types of Lonicera/Honeysuckle and I see varying advise online as to weather to prune it overwinter or after it flowers.

This one has flowered over the past 6 weeks and they are now dying off, so possibly approaching the time to prune it. Photo from a few weeks back when it was in best bloom attached. Any advise?

magicbastarder

Can you take a close up of a flower? Looks more like a rose than a honeysuckle to me.

KenHy

Yea, these from today.

I say I think it's honeysuckle because it came with a label saying "Lonicera" - I'll admit that I wasn't sure when I googled images of "Lonicera" as it doesn't much look like a lot of the images, put that down to the verity of different types as there are some very different looking plants coming up!

magicbastarder

ah yeah, the leaves do look more honeysuckle like there.
don't forget that honeysuckle is a plant which is used to rambling up through bushes or trees to the top, so it wouldn't surprise me if its standard behaviour is to put its foliage on at the top; we have one growing up through a curly hazel, and that's certainly the behaviour we see.

I have the same issue with my honeysuckle, what I did to cover up the bare stems below was to plant annual climbers such as ipomoea or ‘morning glory’ and sweet peas.

standardg60

I think you actually have a very nice Exochorda macrantha there, not a wall plant at all but probably enjoying the warmth it gives.
I'm not a fan of cutting anything back too hard so shorten all the branches back to where there's still some leaf and see if that generates some regrowth further down. You can then shorten back further next Spring.