FairyDust
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A Question on Honeysuckle

I am in zone 6 (New Jersey) and I have this chainlink 10x10 dog pen right outside our back door. I hate looking at it, its such an eye sore. But we have it out there for the dogs to go potty in that way they don't' tear up our backyard that we're going to work on to make it look nice this summer (we just moved here in August of last year).

I was thinking about putting Honeysuckle on it. Does anyone here have any experience with honeysuckle or know anything about it? I have read that it is a pretty tenacious vine. How long can it get? I'd be planting it on the far side of the pen from the house and I'm going to keep it on the pen itself, so it'd have to grow 20 feet before it can reach the house. But will it grow off shoots out of the ground and stuff? it'll be going next to our patio and I don't want the patio to get messed up because of it.

I really want something fragrant and that would attract hummingbirds and butterflies. If honeysuckle is a bad idea for that area, what other vines would be a good idea? I've thought of clematis, but I don't really want that. I want something that grows pretty fast, and it'd be awesome if it has a fragrance (no roses because I don't want the thorns around the dogs). It is a full sun area also.

any tips, recommendations and suggestions would be most appreciated. I have also thought of Jasmine, but I don't know how fast it grows. I'd also prefer it to be a perennial so I don't have to replant every year.

opabinia51
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I really like honey suckle. My father grew it along one of the fences at his farm when I was a young boy. Though, I must admit, I'm not an expert on the plant.

Though, given that if you planted just one plant, it would have to grow twenty feet to reach the house, I would think that you would want to plant more than one plant to get a full complete covering of the fence. May want to try a couple of different cultivars as well, that way you can have some different colours to attract birds and insects.

You can buy honey suckle at local nurseries.

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Grey
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Honeysuckle is a great plant. There's a yellow variety that blooms in Spring and in Fall (the name escapes me, but it is in bloom here - zone 7a - right now.

My only experience with jasmines come from Florida, so I'm not sure if they're a perennial in zone 6 or not. I love night blooming jasmine, but in Fl it was better trimmed into a bush form. Confederate jasmine can be trained to fill in a chain link fence beautifully - you can trim it as you like, weave it through the links - it will cover the thing so well you won't know there's a chain link fence under there anymore!

The Helpful Gardener
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Which one?

Japanese honeysuckle is one of the worst invasives in the state of New Jersey and I would never plant or recommend that one...

Lonicera sempervirens is semi-evergreen, native, and a red flowered form that is big with the humming birds. I'll recommend that one all day long...

Scott

FairyDust
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Apparently Jasmine can only be grown in zones 7 to 10 from what I've read. I had it back home in Washington State which is a very similar winter temperature though.

I was thinking of Hall's Honeysuckle, sorry I didn't mention that earlier. From what I read on Hall's it sounds like scent wise it'd be wonderful but that it can overtake an area if you don't keep good maintenance on it?

I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of Honeysuckle. I just looked up the Japanese Honeysuckle and it can grow up to 30ft in a year. I definitely don't want that lol.

I looked up the Trumpet Honesuckle (Lonicera sempervirens, I'd never heard of it before) and its pretty and it will only grow to 16ft, but it sounds like its a fast grower from what I read here: https://plants.nrcs.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=plant_attribute.cgi&symbol=LOSE

Sorry to ask all of this. I used to do some gardening when I was younger, but I haven't done anything in a few years and this is my first time having a real yard that I am actually going to do things with. I'm trying to do a lot of research so I don't mess up. But I get pretty darn confused sometimes.

opabinia51
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Talked to my stepmother last night who has grown honeysuckle for the past 30 years. She stated that if you ferilize your honeysuckle, it should grow 20 feet in about 2 years.

She also recommended trying Wysteria.

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Grey
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I've never heard of Japanese Honeysuckle. Good to know about that one!

The trumpet is lovely.

Wisteria is another good suggestion - I know little of wisteria but I think it only blooms in Spring? Or is there a twice blooming variety?

The Helpful Gardener
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That Hall's Honeysuckle is Lonicera japonica var. halliana, so it's the bad guy I was talking about...

HG

FairyDust
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Another question... we put up an 8ft by 8ft trellis in the backyard this weekend. I have morning glories I'm growing from seeds to put on it. But I'm thinking about putting a honeysuckle on it also so that next year the honeysuckle would be mature enough that I don't need anything else to fill it in. Would the morning glory choke out the honeysuckle though if I do that? I grew morning glory back home once and it was a fast grower and covered the whole fence.

I don't have anywhere else my morning glory can go, but I don't want to wait until next year to to put a permanent vine on the trellis either. But I don't want to put both and wind up wasting the money and having one of them get killed off by the other if one is too fast of a grower for the other.

So could they co-exist this year or not?

opabinia51
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If morning glory grows like it grows here, it will definately choke out your honeysuckle. Though, I don't know what you climate is like so, I can't give you a definate answer on that question.

I will say, as beautiful as morning glory flowers are, they (the plants... and therefore the flowers) are the bane of my very gardening existance as they constantly choke up my garden.

grandpasrose
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It depends on where you live though Opa. I never have a problem with them even though I plant them every year. I sometimes wish they would get a little more productive than they do. It's probably because your climate is to mild. :wink:

Val

FairyDust
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Well it looks like I managed to kill my seedlings, so it might not be a problem now. Back home in Western WA they did grow like crazy. We had a neighbor with a nasty backyard and it was a chainlink fence dividing our yard. So I put morning glory on it so we couldn't see through as easily and it worked! The fence was completely covered in Morning Glory, could not see through anwyhere. It just went nuts, but we were happy as could be since we didn't have to see the neighbors yard really anymore, just a wall of flowers.

I did wind up getting the Japanese Honeysuckle instead of the Halls Honeysuckle. If my morning glory does make it then I think I'll try to put it somewhere else. I really don't want my honeysuckle choked out. I just don't know how crazy the morning glory can get here in a zone 6 with intense sun during the summer.

opabinia51
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Wow Val, I just looked at your post numbers and you've just about caught up to me. Lots of hard work.

Anyway, yes I realize that the growth of morning glory and other plants depends on local climates, soil types and so on. That's why I posed the queston :)

Hi Fairy Dust, Yes, given that the last time that you planted morning glory that it was so proliffic; I would caution you against planting it now because it can be an incredibly invasive plant that chokes out local flora and not to mention flora that you plant.

The roots spread like wild flower and will very quickly outgrow your yard and start infesting neighbouring landscape and (if it is there) wildlife.

grandpasrose
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I guess I just like to gab Opa!! :lol:

Val

opabinia51
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Don't we all Val, don't we all :wink:

Incidentally Fairydust (Opa scrolls down to make sure you he has the correct name) I am a huge fan of how morning glories look, they have some really nice cultivars and gorgeous flowers, morning glories also attract some beneficial insects but, we have to be careful about what we plant and where we plant it.

I won't even get into Ivy around here :shock: :roll: :shock:

FairyDust
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Yep thats why I'm hesitant on it, I don't want to wind up neighbors yards or invade anywhere. it never grew back back home and it does get colder here in the winter, I really don't know if it makes a difference or not though, I'm only 1 zone down from back home.

Oh man you should see the ivy here too! Everywhere I move I fight ivy it seems like. it took two years to somewhat get it under control at our previous house. Now I see it spreading in the shady area of the far part of our yard. Yay! :roll:

Morning Glories are so beautiful though, I really like them but I think it might be for the best that I accidently killed mine lol.

I can't wait to see how the honeysuckle does over the next few years.

opabinia51
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Hi Fairy Dust,

Yes, I totally agree with you, it is so tempting to buy all the morning glory seeds that I see at the nurseries but, I must issue some restraint.


And I love honeysuckle, when I was young, my mother had honeysuckle growing along this one section of fence. It was always so lovely and smelled so nice. My (little did I know to be stepmother) had it growing around her property and I'm sure that it probably still looks wonderful even though, she doesn't live on the same property.

pixie777
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I know some of these plants suggested are poisonous for dogs.
My only suggestion is to research what plants are good to plant for dogs.

Good Luck and Happy Gardening!!



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