Best planting conditions for honeysuckle?

Chickadee · April 2018

hi all!
as you can see I’m new to the forum and a total novice when it comes to gardening too!although I’m starting to love it (when it goes right) haha....

anyway, I have just bought a honeysuckle lonicera japonica hall's prolific in the hope that it will grow very fast to cover my back fence and give us some privacy. My husband is going to build a wooden planter around 6x2x2 for Just the one plant. My questions are;
1) the sunlight doesn’t really hit the back fence apart from at the top of the trellis midday is it ok? I mean while the plant is young it won’t see any sun on its leaves until it reaches the trellis?
2) what is the best compost to put in with it?
3) how often should I feed it?
4) roughly how much growth in cm should I expect in the first year?
5) can I underplant in the same planter?
i have attached pics of where I would like it to go, as you can See the right side is bright with sunlight (it finally stopped raining 🎉) so you can tell the level of shade the plant will get. Any advice and not necessarily just the questions I’ve asked anything at all that you think may be helpful to me I would really appreciate it thank you x

Posy · April 2018

I am sorry, but I don't think honeysuckle will grow well in a container. Someone else may have better experience of this, but I am doubtful. Honeysuckle will cope with shade at the base, they are woodland plants, but they hate to dry out.

Borderline · April 2018

I'm assuming the measurements are in feet? If it's 2 feet depth, I think a bit more, maybe another 6 inches. They can take shade, and with a raised planter, the growth to the trellis will not be too far. I don't grow Honeysuckle myself, but had a neighbour growing it on a north-west facing garden in full shade at the roots area exactly as you plan on a raised planter, and every year, the plant put on a great show of leaves and then flowers. Looking at your pictures, I think by the second year, they should reach the trellis provided all is well.

I recommend loam based soil like John Innes No2. Work in organic matter like compost ever year. They are woodland based plants and will appreciate that. Make sure they are watered well in the first year. When watering, generous amounts and not a light sprinkle. They like moist soils and coolness around the roots.

Obelixx · April 2018

From the pictures you seem to be a bit of a neat freak and I'm not sure a honeysuckle will suit you. As Borderline says they are best planted in teh ground where they can get all the watering and nutrients they need without relying on you to remember to do it often enough and generously enough and it will need supports to get up to the top of the fence so you'll need to attach tensioned horizontal wires to help it.

Once it gets to the top it will need guiding round the trellis and will then merrily outgrow it and flop about all over seeking more height and support. The solution would be to plant it in the ground, train all its stems as diagonally and/or horizontally as possible to encourage flwoering buds and then build some sort of pergola over which it can scramble.

Here is what the RHS says about growing conditions - https://www.rhsplants.co.uk/plants/_/lonicera-japonica-halls-prolific/classid.1679/

Chickadee · April 2018

Thanks for all of your reply’s
@Obelixx you made me laugh.... yes I am a slight neat freak but it’s actually a new garden that has been done, we literally started from scratch hence why it looks that way, I really like the look of lots of different plants/flowers and rock gardens, but to get that effect would cost a small fortune for an instant impact so I planted what was around at the time more impatient than anything I think. There were two main reasons why I thought a planter would be best;
1) as you say the honeysuckle would reach the trellis part quicker.
2) Chester..... my dog he pees on everything!
i was thinking of more a frame than an enclosed planter, so eventually the honeysuckle could go down into the ground? As I say I’m totally new to gardening I know the look I wish to achieve but getting there is another thing.
I am also going to getting more trellis for me to be able to attach the growing honeysuckle to.

Marlorena · April 2018

I'm a little confused as to where you would locate this planter, which at 6 foot wide by 2 x 2, is quite large, and would need to be centralised against the fence, but I see you already have 3 little evergreens planted there. It would necessitate in removing the middle one, in which case you could just replant with the honeysuckle into the ground in its place. To protect from dog, I would just put a small couple of potted plants in front, over the root system, to deflect anything like that.

If you have some other plan for the container, then when you buy your honeysuckle, they are usually already about 4 foot tall with twining stems at the top entangled with each other. On planting in said container, I would think the top of the plant would already be close to the top of your fence, in which case you would take each leading stem and train left and right along trellis. It would probably cover that width in one season, this is a rampant climber... it will also make a beeline for your little tree there...

Nice neat garden though, for low maintenance style...

Obelixx · April 2018

Plant it in the ground in a well prepared hole - added garden compost of manure and some grit if your soil is heavy - then put a shield round it to stop the dog peeing on it while it gets established. Same for anything else you plant.

Chickadee · April 2018

@Marlorena thank you, we needed a low maintenance garden at the time but I would love some colour and interest. Those evergreens at the bottom would be moved although I don’t think they are very well? All of the leaves have gone very droopy but the one to the right is growing lovely? In front of those are astilbes they were bare roots but have started doing something finally! I have already purchased the honeysuckle it says that it’s in a 2 litre pot, how long could I theoretically keep it in that pot comfortably? I think I will plant the honeysuckle in the ground but I will need to prep it as down the bottom it does get quite waterlogged as it sees no sun. As for the tree I can trim the honeysuckle to keep it away right?? Ugh maybe I have bought the wrong thing again.......

Marlorena · April 2018

Well, you could keep it in that 2 litre pot for a few weeks, but it will become pot bound quickly at this time of year. I'd like to think I had it planted out by mid May...
If the ground is moist then try and incorporate some pea shingle/gravel into the planting hole digging it in, but really, these honeysuckles are capable of holding their own, and will grow in most places without undue attention. I wouldn't even bother feeding it. In parts of the U.S. this plant is banned because it's invasive, but here it's more accommodating, so nothing to worry about, and a lovely plant it is too, I used to have one and would like one again at some point..

It tends not to get infested with aphids like other honeysuckles do, in my experience.
Another point to make is that, depending where the sun rises from, and I realise it's shady there, the plant will try to flower and grow towards where the sun shines most, so that may be the other side of that fence. I don't know what's beyond your gate, but you might find in time, the best flowering is to be seen from the other side. Just depends, but something to take in mind. Don't be put off by the plant, or afraid of it...just keep it in check..

Chickadee · April 2018

@Marlorena thank you so much for your help and reassurance gardening for a newcomer can be somewhat overwhelming I just want to get it right. At the back of the fence there is an overgrown alley (sold to us as a communal green 🙄) but yes it is lovely and sunny back there, i could potentially put the honeysuckle on the left hand side of the garden as this sees the afternoon sun and train it to go around the tree and then on the back fence? when I found this one to be honest the invasive side appealed to me as I knew it would cope with whatever I do to it and grow fast! I will get some gravel tomorrow and some John Innes thanks @Borderline for that.

Fire · April 2018

I agree that honey suckle can be very scraggy plant. From my own experience - I planted several five years ago, in large planters, in order to cover a shady trellis. I was recommended at the GC a variety that would apparently tolerate conditions without much direct sun. For me, they were a mistake. They haven't covered the trellis at all, and have just grown and put on leaf at the top, stretching towards the sun. They are always full of brown, scraggy, dead-looking twigginess and have never flowered. The plants are pretty healthy - they just want to grow upwards. I have honeysuckle all over my garden, and in fact, none of it has ever flowered.

Something like an evergreen climbing hydrangea might work better for shady conditions, but it doesn't settle or grow fast, I understand. Or a small tree towards the right of the fence.

I'm not a professional gardener, like other commenters. This is just might two cents, having tried a similar project.

Best planting conditions for honeysuckle?

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