Thanks for the photos. Seems very promising. I have a trellis that is about that width so maybe that will work out. I like your wall in photo #1. And the tree in photo #2 is so large, must be a great mature tree. I need to get the trellis up and attach the vine to it for this season. I am going to put it against my house next to the kitchen window, so we can see any hummingbirds up close.

Thanks for the lovely comments re the wall and the oak! I started my garden from basically nothing in 2019 so it's very much a work in progress but those two things were both good building blocks to start from.

I just found a video I took last August of one of the little guys sipping from each of the trumpets one by one. Wish there was a way for me to post it here! Anyway this whole topic made me very excited for summer so thank you for that ...

That's an oak tree? Looks great! When does the Major Wheeler bloom?

Last year it was in full bloom by May 20th, and then in flushes through to the fall.

My Lonicera sempervirens Major Wheeler only retains its old leaves occasionally, typically when it goes from warm to cold really suddenly. Most years they drop. My memory is that the few times they were retained that the old leaves dropped when the new leaves came in. Mine starts blooming when the native columbine bloom, typically late May here in central NH, and it has at least some blooms until hard frost.

@nemiractfairfieldcountyzn7a, I am so glad that you decided to jump into the discussion! These forums will only continue to work if folks participate.

Well, I may have done the wrong thing, but all the stems that had old dead leaves on them, looked dead with no new growth, so I cut them all back. The rest of the stems have all new leaves on them and no dead leaves. I haven't gotten it tied to the trellis yet and the stems are still held together with that green flower tape that it came with. And a lot of the old stems with dried leaves seemed to be bound by that tape.

I'm just so happy that it came back this spring and already has good leaf growth. I just added it last Fall.

PM, i was thinking of you when my major wheeler was blooming! I've been meaning to loop back and ask how yours did this year? It took a few years for mine to get going but it's looking better and better each year now. We've had a few hummingbird visitors too!

Nemira - Wow! Your Major Wheeler looks great! You've done a good job pruning it and shaping it. Mine is growing, that's about all I can say about it. It's not very cooperative about attaching to the trellis. I've been trying to just wind it in and out without tying it up and that works for the most part but some of the branches flop over to the ground. I really doubt I'll see a bloom this year. But I remind myself of the old garden saying - 'First year it sleeps, second year it creeps and third year it leaps.' I suspect that's what will happen with this.

Is yours in full sun? How did you train it on that fence? Did you tie the main stems to the trellis and leave it bare until it gets to the top? Really came out nice. I'm looking forward to mine looking that good at some point. Thanks for posting your pics for me!

Lightwise it has done well in a difficult spot. That black surface It's growing up is north facing so not a lot of light but at the top there's way more sun--i would say 8 hours dappled sun maybe?-- which is why you see so much growth clustered at the top. I really like the effect but I haven't pruned a single thing! I mostly just let it do its thing. The only thing I did is to now and then spread the new shoots out more evenly so it covered more of that horrible black surface. Oh, and it has a tendency to send out shoots way out into space where there's nothing to hold them so I tuck those in. Occasionally I tied with string, sometimes not.

I'm confident that yours will look great in a couple of years. It really has been a pretty easy plant for me now that it's established itself. But I do remember that it was a pathetic little thing it's first year!

Thanks, Nemira - I am patiently ignoring mine this season, expecting nothing. Next year I'll pay more attention to it.