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What to do with woody honeysuckle?

baytree1970R7WNg390baytree1970R7WNg390 Posts: 53
in Problem solving
I've got a 4 year old Lonicera Japonica growing up wires on a wall, and it now projects from the wall by about 3 ft, and the interior of the plant is just woody.

I'd like to refresh it so it's greener, and closer to the wall.

Not sure it's relevant but it suffers badly from powdering mildew each year and does seem happier away from the wall with increased airflow.

Any advice on what I should do please?

Posts

  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    edited November 2023
    It is a bit tricky, they often do get mildew.
    Keeping it well watered should help.
    We have the same one flopping about and meandering through a hedge. and it seems to be happy there, no mildew.

    Ours is L.j. halliana, and they flower on new growth, so I cut ours back quite hard in March.
    We are in the South so don't know if it will be different for you.
    You could cut back a lot of the hard older stems to refresh it.

    Yours does look nice.
    I don't know if putting it on a trellis with spacers to hold it away from the wall would help with airflow?

    Edited to add ours is quite rampant and I am quite ruthless with ours.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I cut mine hard back too.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I would clip it hard back … preferably after the main flush of flowers.  It’ll look a bit bare for a couple of weeks and then it’ll suddenly be covered with green again. 

    And honeysuckle needs lots of water … especially when planed close to a wall.  From mid March to early Sept I’d give that two buckets full of water twice a week … more in warm dry spells. That’ll help prevent the powdery mildew which tends to strike when the plant is stressed by drought. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • baytree1970R7WNg390baytree1970R7WNg390 Posts: 53
    thanks for the tips, I think I'll cut it back hard and see what happens.

    I didn't know about needing more water to fend off mildew. I spray it all over with milk when the mildew appears and that does seem to work, but I'd prefer if the mildew never happened in the first place!
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Deep watering is the answer. Probably
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