How can I save my Honeysuckle

[Muddy Fox]

I have a casualty, my honeysuckle which is healthy and flourishing, the product of a dry twig of a honeysuckle plant given to me by health spa guide and welcomer, about five years go has blown over in the wind.
It was climbing up a metal arch that I purchased when we moved here but that has corroded and rotted and now lies broken on the ground and my poor honeysuckle is entwined and I don't know how to unravel it and then support it. What can I do? Any suggestions?

[Oakapple]

I'm not a gardening expert but I too have a much loved honeysuckle.
My first thought is whether you could lift up the metal support and re fix that up. I just feel that it will be very difficult to untwine the plant without damaging it, and mine doesnt seem to like pruning, it takes ages to grow again afterwards.
Hope you get some more advice and best wishes to your honeysuckle.

[Muddy Fox]

Thanks Oakapple,
I have tried to put the arch back up, I tied some string on the bottom and anchored it into the ground with some thick nails and then waited it down with some big bricks, but it still went and blew back over in the recent winds. I think it has given up the ghost. It is probably too flimsy for the weight of the honeysuckle. I am going to try and unravel the honeysuckle and then I will just have to prune it to release it and today I am going to get some new sturdier trellis and see what I can do with it. It's really upset me, fancy getting emotional over a plant!

[Mountainheart]

Thanks Oakapple,
I have tried to put the arch back up, I tied some string on the bottom and anchored it into the ground with some thick nails and then waited it down with some big bricks, but it still went and blew back over in the recent winds. I think it has given up the ghost. It is probably too flimsy for the weight of the honeysuckle. I am going to try and unravel the honeysuckle and then I will just have to prune it to release it and today I am going to get some new sturdier trellis and see what I can do with it. It's really upset me, fancy getting emotional over a plant!

Honeysuckle is a lovely plant but *very* vigorous. Existing stems won't respond well to pruning but If you cut it back to ground level you'll quickly have a burst of beautiful new healthy shoots which you can then train into the new trellis. It'll take a couple of years but eventually you'll have a healthier plant than you did before.

[Muddy Fox]

Thanks dhonour.I have a horrible feeling that I may have to do that, I hate pruning plants back like that and I may not be living here in two years time to see it flourish again. The end of an era, in a way that honeysuckle represents this period in my life, planting, growing, cut right back to start again.
Spelling mistake in my post "waited" instead of "weighted"

[Lily]

I'm thinking angular grinder.... extricate the broken trellis from the shrub, get a new one and tie it up onto it.

[DaRC]

Existing stems won't respond well to pruning but If you cut it back to ground level you'll quickly have a burst of beautiful new healthy shoots

Most excellent you've just solved my dilemma with one of our honeysuckles... what time of year is best for this = just after flowering like some clematis?

[Mountainheart]

Existing stems won't respond well to pruning but If you cut it back to ground level you'll quickly have a burst of beautiful new healthy shoots

Most excellent you've just solved my dilemma with one of our honeysuckles... what time of year is best for this = just after flowering like some clematis?

Ideally I would do it in March: so that the new shoots are less likely to be damaged by hard frosts. Also if growth is very thick, any bird's nests will be empty in March.

At the same time give it a good feed and fork some nicely rotted FYM into the top few inches of soil (not too deep as you don't want to damage the roots).

Thx
David

[DaRC]

Thanks David - I shall wait until next spring then

[Muddy Fox]

Thanks for all of your advice. The update on the honeysuckle is I disentangled it but to do so had to prune most of it, it is half the size now, but not pruned right back. The trellis I bought to replace the arch was no good. Not thick enough and I when I tried to hammer it into the ground it broke. So I got an old metal clothes airer and bent it about bit and hammered that into the ground and the tied the half honeysuckle onto that. I don't know if I have killed it yet, I will have to wait and see. But me spuds and onions are flourishing, I have some bean and pea plants started from seed, doing well and some tomato plants to get going. I've been digging and mowing on and off all day. My fingers are sore. And my wrists ache, particularly whenst typing and the A key is temperamental. So I have a peace filled unexciting life but I am happy with myself, which is the main thing! Life is good!