Honeysuckle

[Tattie-muncher]

Hello Folks,
The wife would appreciate any help with her favoured Honeysuckle, she's been growing it about four years, and it's been growing away nice in it's wee corner, where it gets some sun and some shade, however, all of a sudden it's started to look that bit threadbare, it has a really good outer covering of flowering growth, but push the good growth to the side, and underneath, it's all wilting and leaves falling off, loads of bear branches, and those branches are very brittle, it gets watered, fed, and the wife thins it a bit in the winter, it was growing away great, then it came into flower, but you would think someone had poured weed killer over it, but we have a completely closed in garden, we don't even have gate access to the garden, the only way into our garden is through our house, so no one could possibly have poured something over it, a big thank you to anyone who reads this, and might just be able to come up with some suggestion, any ideas will be greatly appreciated

[veggiechicken]

Can't help with the sudden onset of whatever, but I find that honeysuckle tends too look a bit leggy after a few years - they really need to be cut back quite hard - not totally but about a third at a time to encourage new growth.
You could take some cuttings from some healthy stems and put them in water. They root quite easily I find. Or rummage around at the base and see if you can find any layered rooted stems. Sever them, dig them up and pot up. This way you'll have a fall back if anything terminal happens to the bush.

[dim]

it needs water (deep watering on a regular basis)

[frogga]

I've watered mine for around 45 minutes a day this past week, and it's getting by, I don't think it's happy in the hot weather.

[Tattie-muncher]

Thank's folk's for the advice, we'll try everything and see what happens, it's the wife's favourite, so we'll wait and cut it back in the winter when it's dormant, I've just given it a good feed while giving it a good watering, so we'll see what happens

[Two_Sheds]

it needs water (deep watering on a regular basis)

I disagree.


I have honeysuckles all over my fences, and they're never watered. The wild one (woodbine) on my lotty is never watered either.

[Two_Sheds]

we'll ... cut it back in the winter

Nope, late summer or early spring, depending on the variety: Honeysuckle (Lonicera) / Royal Horticultural Society