There's no easy way to answer this because it would depend on both the size and age of your plants, and could be affected by whether they experienced transplant shock that might slow them down.

You do know that many bush honeysuckles are highly invasive? Of course, so are some of the vining types too.

We have a neighbor up the road who has free-standing bush honeysuckles out in the yard between two houses set very far apart, and each bush honeysuckle plant is the size of a mid-sized car. So, if you think they are bush honeysuckles, be sure to plant them where they will have room to really spread and grow. If you want a big monster-sized plant to serve as a living privacy fence or to hide something, a bush honeysuckle might be perfect for that. If you want a more contained ornamental vine that will stay will you planted it and climb a trellis or fence or whatever, you might not be happy with a bush type.

Did the containers not have a plant label with a name when you bought them? I hope they had more than a generic tag that said "Honeysuckle".

Hi Dawn,

Thanks so much. They have been in the ground for a year and still look like a 2 foot bush, actually they grew to be a 2 foot bush from a 1 foot. They had no tags when I bought them. I am going to throw them away this week because I think that they are a bush, and I am afraid that they could be invasive. I looked up the dwarf honeysuckle and that is not what they are. A friend gave me a vine honeysuckle, and at his tender age, it is a vine and is putting out shoots. if anyone near me in Tahlequah wants 4 bushes, let me know because by Friday they are goners. in their place I ordered 3 Goldflame honeysuckles. I have also planted one trumpet vine far from the house but on the same fence. I couldn't resist the trumpet vine, and then then I have two Carolina Jasamine vines that I wish I had not bought since they kill bees, but there seems to be mixed reviews on that--all on same fence line. If you all here think I should get rid of the Jasamine let me know.

Hi Jess,

I do love Goldflame honeysuckle. It is so gorgeous and not too terribly invasive. I love trumpet creepers too and have planted a lot of them. They are one of the few things here that can go the entire summer with no rain and no irrigation and survive even in the worst drought years.

I agree with you about the Carolina Jessamine. I had planted it at our first house in the 1980s but dug it out and disposed of it when I learned of its potential toxicity. I figured there were enough plants that were not potentially toxic so why grow one that might hurt the bees---and that was long before we knew the bee populations were struggling. I replaced mine with American Cross Vine, which grew really well (it actually spread better than the Carolina Jessamine) and which the hummingbirds adore. I never regretted removing the Jessamine.

Dawn

Thanks again Dawn. I will take the Jessamine out too and throw it away. The trumpet vine I can make fill that area in time. Never heard of a American Cross Vine but will look it up.

You're welcome. American Cross Vine is native to Texas, though like many native plants, it is becoming harder and harder to find out in the wild because development keeps destroying all the wild places where it used to grow. The hummingbird migration in Texas used to follow the blooming of American Cross Vine, so as the vines bloomed progressively further north in springtime, the hummingbird migration came right along with the American Cross Vine bloom. Nowadays, I suppose the hummers migrate more based on something else blooming since American Cross Vine in the wild has become more rare. When we lived in Texas, I knew there was no point in filling the hummingbird feeders until the cross vine had begun to bloom because the hummingbirds weren't going to show up until then. In Texas, I think I had the actual unimproved native American Cross Vine. The one I planted here in OK is named Tangerine Beauty.

Tangerine Beauty American Cross Vine