Hey Heidi. I have 2 - a Lonicera x Mandarin and a new one, a Lonicera x heckrotti (the famous "Goldflame"). The 2 are each in their own "flat back" containers so they can lay flat against a wall. One is 8" on center and the other 10" on center. I'm figuring that people have supposedly forced growth slowdown of vines like honeysuckle by keeping them potted.

The Mandarin survived the winter (which saw the first single digits here in 7 years - luckily for just one day). I did have to cover it with some row cover in mid spring when it started sprouting but we were still getting some frosts. Now it's taking off. It hasn't bloomed yet but I expect it will soon, just based on the new growth on it so far.

The new heckrotti is blooming up a storm, which is good. What is bad is the powdery mildew on it which I am treating weekly - but I expect that is also partly weather to blame.

You can root and top prune them as they bloom on new growth. I would let them get established some before doing any major pruning. You could usually see what parts of the vines survived the winter as they will be the first ones to sprout some leaves.

I expect depending on the cultivar, you could prune after a first flush to encourage a bushier plant where it can start some new vines. I noticed when researching that some have flushes and then intermittant reblooms and others seem to go on and off all summer. So I guess it depends on which one you get.

This was my Mandarin recently:

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And my Goldflame:

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The Goldflame of which booted out my traditional moonflower spot. LOL That center vine in that Goldflame pic has since hit the ceiling!!!!

{{gwi:2426}}

And this is only after less than 2 weeks since the earlier pic was taken. The plant was a 1 gallon that I bought May 1, and it had been pruned back to about 2.5ft when bought.

I would say be prepared to guide them to where you want them to wrap because at this point, my poor Mandarin ran out of someplace to attach and doubled back on itself and is headed back to the trellis. LOL

that's adorable, jenny :) how big do you estimate the pot is? about 2 gallons? i always love to see photos of your balcony. :) i live vicariously through you! :)

no problem about places to attach, though, because the fire escape has those ugly metal railings. :)
heidi

Hmmm... I'm not sure how to convert the size but I expect that the 10" one is probably half the size of a full 10" or about 2 gallons, and the 8" is probably about 1.5 gallons.

The plants I put in there were 2-qt for the Mandarin and gallon size for the Goldflame. Ironically, I ended up putting the Goldflame in the smaller pot, but it doesn't seem to mind so far.

LOL - Ignore the above I guess I can't add... :-P

The 8" "half" would be half of a 16" full, although it is much shallower than the usual 16". Similarly, the 10" half would be 20" if full.

I think standard 16" pots are about 10 gallon equivalent. Half would be 5 gallons and take about 1/3rd of that to account for the shallowness... So I'd say the 8" half-round is probably about 3 gallons equivalent.

Similarly, the 20" would probably be about 15 gallons, then half would be about 7, then making it shallow would take it to probably about 4 gallons equivalent, based on the way that particular pot was shaped (in order to go around a square fence post).

One word of caution, Heidi -
While I totally understand your desire to have a beautiful vine twining around your fire escape.
Please remember that it IS a fire escape. The fire department might notice it & you may end up with a summons & a fine.

Just a thought.

thanks for your cautionary words -- i worried about that for a while, but i've had plants out there for a while -- i'm trying my best to pare down, actually. what i'm thinking of doing, actually, is no longer growing tomatoes, bay, and other herbs out there -- just one vine. it's so hard, though.

i'm taking safety into account -- the egress route isn't blocked.
thanks again for your concern :)
heidi

I believe *technically* there's supposed to be nothing on a fire escape.

All you need is one ambitious rookie who needs to fill a ticket quota. LOL!

too true -- the neat thing, though, about my neighborhood, is that people around here know and love the garden -- i don't only garden on my balcony/fire escape, but i do my co-op's garden, too...i have a fish pond there, and the fish have become the neighborhood pets. small kids, the elderly, young couples, everyone comes by and stares at the fish. even cops and firefighters! they all know that i do the garden, and that i garden on the fire escape, too, and they just laugh it off. even if i do get a ticket, in a lot of ways, i think it's worth it. i'd probably pull my plants off the fire escape if i did get a ticket, but until then, i'll probably keep pushing my luck :)

thanks! :)
heidi

We're going to be moving to an apartment in about a year, so I'm beginning to think about what I want to do in the way of container/balconey gardening. I have a honeysuckle I planted last year that is doing great outside and it's the last perrenial I have purchased.

Is there any hope for digging up any of my flowers and potting them, or should I begin with new plants? Is there anything that doesn't work well on a balconey or can you essentially plant anything in a container?

Jacque

Hi Jacque - a bunch of my plants were "dug up" from my mom's yard and my sisters' yards - particularly daylilies and hosta. LOL Hey, who can argue with "free"?

You can grow anything you want provided you give it the conditions that it needs with respect to amount of sun, water, some fertilizer, good well-draining soil, and a right-sized container to accomodate the plant.

Heidi wins the gold medal for graciousness in the face of the begrudger! I have found that pruning of the above ground growth is very rewarding. It encourages more shoots to appear, which results in a nice bushy plant quite quickly. In my experience allowing one long stem to progress rarely leads to bushiness and very few flowers appear. After a while the lower leaves fall and the plant keeps putting all its energy into the one long stem. Eventually the long stem seems to choke and die, except for the tip, which keeps trying to do its best.

Well as a proponant of planting anything whereever you can eeek out a space for it in the city.. I believe the danger isn't only with egres and such.. but a irefighter loaded with equiptment and a hose ..climbing a smokey fireescape and knocking off the say 5 gal planter .. that's perhaps a weight of 40 lbs... @ 8 lbs a gallon plus the planter .. can cause a nasty incident if not for him for the guy comming up below..or someone on the ground.. perhaps directing the operations.. Is there a way of lashing the pot to the window sill.. that would be a help.. I got a firefighter commerative dahalia.. a big red one with a silver on the reverse of the petals.. Gee... it must be a full foot in flower diameter.. one of the most amaising I've grown.. FF love flowers too..
The glodflame Jen mentioned is aa true scrapper of a honeysuckle.. mine in it's second or third year is just blasting away.. new growth allover.. and I've not pruned it a bit.. and millions of flowers for the last few months.. couldn't ask for a more beautiful or robust choice in a honeysuckle.. Pictures to follow t a date real soon... Gordon

Can anyone tell me how to take a cutting and root a honeysuckle? FLOW.

This is a follow up to my message above.Please see the drawing at the very top of the Plant Propagation Forum,It is exactly what I have.I think its a type of Honeysuckle,but I could be wrong.Anyway, could anyone I.D. it for me and offer some rooting instructions? my cutting have been sitting in water for three days. Thanks. Flow.

flow, you should stick your cuttings in a sterile potting mix, peat based is favorite, and then you should keep them well watered but not waterlogged for amonth. they should root just fine, honeysuckle is easy to root.
good luck! :)
heidi