Hello. I am so proud of my coral honeysuckle! I honestly did not believe I could grow this. However, she is outgrowing the oblisk trellis so we installed a hog panel arch. My question is should I start training her vines through or try to unwrap from the smaller trellis? Thanks so much!
by Brilliant_Sun6500
4 Comments
So pretty! I would do both – unwrap first, then train on the arch. Kind of like detangling hair, lol
I wouldn’t mess with the vibes growing up the post already. You’re likely to cause more damage than do any good to it.
You can either weave them when they woodify or use landscape tape to gently tie them to the hog panel. Coral Honeysuckle will root anywhere it touches the ground so eventually it’ll root next to the bottom of the hog panel.
I would just take stem cuttings.
So the safest, most guaranteed way is to take some vines, and chop them up into maybe 6″ sections. Cut off the first 2 inches off the very tip of the vine maybe where it’s thin and floppy. Like you want a thick, kinda softwood/green stick vibe to the part you will plant.
Pull all the leaves off the bottom part of each section, just leaving a few at the top.
Dip the bottom end of cut vine in some water just to get it wet, then dip it or roll it in a bit of rooting hormone, or sprinkle the rooting hormone onto the plant. They sell rooting hormone at the big box hardware stores, it’s easy to get. Costs like $6-10 for a jar that will last a long time.
Fill some containers with potting soil, probably quart size is fine. Dig a hole or just poke the vine into the container.
Put the containers in a mildly shady place or somewhat cooler place outside. Just try to keep it under 80 degrees if you can.
The top leaves might shrivel up and look bad initially, although I don’t think it will happen here.
Check in on it every day or so, and just see if the soil is moist. Not soaking wet, just decently moist. Really like you’d treat most container plants indoors or out.
I would guess that in about 2-3 weeks, you’ll start to notice it seems to have turned a corner. It’ll just sorta look more perky, and like a living plant instead of a piece of stem stuck in soil. You might see it start growing new leaves or a new stem.
Give it a month, and then gently tug it. It should feel rooted. You might even see some root poking out the bottom. Then maybe give it another week for good measure and to wait until after a decent rain maybe. Then plant them exactly where you want them. You really only need one on each side of the arch. Give any extras away.
That’s the safest way to do it where you can site the new vines exactly where you want them, and even get yourself a bunch of extra plants. While at the same time, you’re preserving the main plant just in case anything goes wrong. Once the other plants are established on the arch, hack the middle plant to the ground and then dig out the roots. Like really make sure you try to dig out the roots pretty good, otherwise that sucker is coming right back.
The reality is, you probably don’t have to go through that whole process. You could probably just hack the plant into sections, and poke them right into the dirt or just lay them on the dirt and sprinkle a bit of mulch or dirt or a small rock to make sure it’s contacting the ground, and they will grow.
I prune my coral honeysuckle every heavily every year, and every year there’s some pieces that fall to the ground that I don’t see. And every August, I’m like wtf? and then have to go and pull like 2-3 four foot baby vines out of the ground fast, before they really establish.