Himalayan Honeysuckle

Hello folks . New to the group so bear with me . I have just been given a Himalayan Honeysuckle that was previously in a pot . It has around 10 shoots that have been cut to around 8 inches from the soil. I am wondering whether it would be possible to split the plant in two . I would also like to know if it would be feasible to grow up a fence panel whilst restricting/trimming forward growth as the fence is around 18 inches from the path

 

@therebelmc
Assuming you are talking about Leycesteria formosa, yes you can probably split it.
Ones I've known tend to be bushy and droop outwards as they grow; so training to grow up a fence panel will be an ongoing task and it would probably look better grown as a bush.
To grow up the fence panel I would look for a climbing honeysuckle (Lonicera) of which there are many varieties.

 

Thanks Nigel. From your description I guess it is similar to a Buddleia regarding growth . Best have a rethink methinks .

 

Bleedin' things self seed everywhere! Quite a short lived shrub, quite lax but squeeze the ripe berries and take a sniff. If you don't fancy chocolate caramel afterwards there's something wrong with you! I have never tried to split them on purpose.
Bees have a sweet tooth as well it seems

 

@shiney I am really interested in your plants for charity thing that you've mentioned a few times. It sounds as though maybe it's a solution for my over-production of seedlings and sometimes more substantial plants. How does this work? How do you know what might be good for a Charity shop? Any particular types of charity shop which like plants? Etc... All info very welcome. I have a huge number of small self seeded echiums this year for eg: it would be a piece of cake to pot these up and hand them over. But to who? And would they want them?

 

@shiney Totally inspriational! Love it. But OK - I definitely don't have that kind of garden or skill. I might just put a table out of the front of the house this year and a charity box...

The training thing though resonates: I live opposite a field which is owned by a group of 'Chef Tenants'. It's an old crown grant of land to local residents who are then expected to maintain it - but can also profit from it. Ours floods from the sea in a little area, back up the drainage ditch, on a very high tide, floods from rainwater significantly at the other end, has one of the very-poisonous-to-cattle wort family plants in half of it - and is therefore agrticulturally a bit useless. It is though, potentially a part time grazeable wetland, of some environmental significance.

The interesting bit though is that the Chef Tenants don't seem to know that they are in fact Chef Tenants. So the Parish (has a much bigger role here politically and adminsitratively than in the UK) has taken on 'looking after' the field, and leases it out to the son of the Constable (an elected Parish position) who puts cows in the safer half, for about 15 weeks a year. And in return he has to perform the 'branchage' which is the statutory hedge trimming for landowners with road-adjoining property. There's a cubits clearance measurement which is taken in June and Sept I think, with fines for non-compliance - organised by staff from the Parish hall, who run round on bicycles. It's hilarious actually (says the fella with no road adjoinng trees...)

Anyway. I have pulled together a small group of local sort-of-enthusiasts to see if we could create a community garden. As always happens, the local envirnonmentalist stepped forward to kybosh my plan - pointing out that it's too environmentally important a site to use for a garden and should be maintained as an educational resource for local schools.

OK: fine. It turns out though that the Parish owns as gifts from now-dead wealthy land owners, a number of other fields. I am supposed to be putting a plan together to do a joint piece which will both set up the Educational Wetland and a Community Garden. I'm a bit time short so it's dragging. Still there is another perfect field available to us - next one over in fact. It's massive and just has suffered from a level of agricultural abuse over the years, leased to any farmer who will pay - who ploughs it, puts potatoes in with a stack of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

I would love to see it used for training scheme, a community resource, maybe some social prescribing for conditions that limit movement, or with mental health impacts. Etc. However, I need time to pull it together so it's progressing slowly. Still: its there to be done and I will get round to it in due course no doubt. You've motivated me to pull it back up the agenda...

 

@shiney Thanks!

@misterQ very interested in any thoughts. The whole project scares me...so...tips would be truly welcome