Coral honeysuckle is a well behaved plant. It should be just fine on your fence. It is nothing like it's Japanese counterpart which can take a fence down with its weight. It does need some sort of support. What about a wrought iron trellis instead of a wood one? I think it still needs to be anchored to the fence because the vine can get heavy. I have two of them. One is growing on a pergola and the other grows on my fence with a wood fan trellis attached. I did trim it up some this spring and it needs a little more trimming up from the bottom, but it is still mannerly. If you use "string", then select a strong jute twine. Not sure if that is strong enough, but it might work for the first season. I personally think sticking a trellis in the ground plus anchoring it to the fence in some way is a lot easier than hammering in all those nails and tying all that twine - better support too.

The coral honeysuckle that I bought is fairly small (like a 6" pot, I think). It is about 1 1/2ft tall but no flowers yet. Will this one be enough to get it started or should I get another for the space?
And do I simply wrap the vine around whatever form of support I give it or will this happen on its own? Any special instructions to help it get started?

You could use twine to tie the vine to the support for now and it'll begin to wrap around the support on it's own at some point.

I bought a coral honeysuckle this year also. I have a brick fence - I used a strip of chicken wire fron ground to the top cover stripe (decorative thing on top of brick) I wove the longest branches thru the wire - not every hole and it has been 1 month since then. It is now climbing on it own.
~Angie~

you can see it in the middle of this picture...

My coral honeysuckle is a year old, and it is very well behaved. When I planted it last spring against our house, I ran string from the plant up to an outdoor light fixture about six feet above it. It grew that much last year. This year it is just filling in that same space better, because I haven't figured out exactly how to run more string farther up (our house is limestone, and I'm not entirely sure I want to attach something to it).

I have esperanza beside it and the CH hasn't bothered it at all. I just have to remember to tuck long shoots back in from time to time.

Btw, I know you're in DFW, so your experience may end up being different from mine, but my CH stayed evergreen this winter in spite of several hard freezes here in San Antonio. It even kept blooming a little. All of that to say...you're going to love it. =)

My coral honeysuckle vine has been in the ground for at least three years now (maybe 4?) and it has enough growth to cover that entire center section.

Thanks to you all for your input! Scuba-gal-I think I'll try the chicken wire as well...hope it grows like yours has!

patriotizm wrote:

"My coral honeysuckle is a year old, and it is very well behaved. When I planted it last spring against our house, I ran string from the plant up to an outdoor light fixture about six feet above it."

Is this a viable long-term support for honeysuckle? (Well, perhaps not string, but, say, strong fishing line.) I had been getting the idea that honeysuckle was fairly woody and would want something thicker, perhaps with latticework, to twine through, and would require some tying up to train properly.

This is a timely issue for me, as I'm attracted to the idea of something like fishing line rather than installing a lattice that will need painting or staining, or something that will rust, but also would like to plant honeysuckle, as the hummingbirds love it. So I'd be delighted to hear more success stories along this line.

I use fishing line to anchor my morning glories, I bet the same thing would work for honeysuckle. I am envious, I want a coral honeysuckle ... Those are gorgeous plants! Good luck!

When I got the coral honeysuckle vine it was blooming but now it is not. The leaves have some spots on them.