When to Cut Back Honeysuckle

[fleemo17]

I have honeysuckle vines that have grown into a giant bush, interwoven with a potato vine that has never blossomed much. I'm wondering when the appropriate time to cut this beast back would be?

Thanks.

-F

[paghat]

My vining honeysuckles bloom until autumn, so get trimmed back shortly after bloom is finished, or any time after leaf-fall, not necessarily every year. If you have spring-blooming honeysuckles they'd be pruned earlier, whenever there's an interuption in the flowering, or whenever the berries shrivel or get mushy & are no longer decorative enough to be worth delaying the pruning any longer. If pruned the "wrong" time of year that won't do any real harm though more buds would be lost. Every few years, the oldest woodiest of the vines should be removed to right near the ground.

-paghat the ratgirl

[David J Bockman]

Presuming you wish to enjoy the flowering, immediately after flowering. If you have no wish to see the flowers this year, anytime during dormancy is fine.

Dave

[Pam - gardengal]

Dave, I'm not sure that when you prune has any bearing on flower production. I prune all my honeysuckles hard in early March - at the same time I prune my clematis - and there is no interruption of flowering.

pam - gardengal

[David J Bockman]

Hi Pam,

I was picturing the 'cut right back to the ground' kind of pruning. :o)

Dave

[Pam - gardengal]

I suppose that could affect flowering :-) My "hard pruning" involves leaving the essential framework of the vine and cutting back all the excess tendrils. All are growing on fences so the framework ranges from 4' to 6' - not quite as drastic as cutting to the ground.

pam

[fleemo17]

Thanks for the input here folks. I do plan on leaving a great deal of the vines in tact, but wacking back the bulk. Kind of a haircut instead of a beheading. :)

-Fleemo