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Telegraph

Ask the head gardener: How can I get my honeysuckle to flower?

Dear Tom, How can I get my honeysuckle to flower? It's Lonicera periclymenum 'Serotina' on a south-facing trellis about 7ft tall, with a fence next to it. It has shade at the roots from other planting, and the soil is clay but has been much improved with compost, manure, and so on. I've had it for about 10 years and it makes lots of foliage, but little in the way of flowers. I cut it back in the autumn to keep it in check. What else can I do? –Rosalind Dear Rosalind, I think you have certainly been patient with your honeysuckle; how frustrating that after 10 years you've not seen many flowers. Honeysuckles can be tricky to grow, being prone to mildew in times of drought, often producing lots of top growth with bare stems towards the base, not to mention their erratic flowering. There are many issues which can cause Lonicera not to flower and it could be one, or a combination of the following: Fertility Excessive feeding can lead to leafy growth; the plant does not feel the need to flower and reproduce itself through seeds, as life is good with little stress or threats. The priority for the plant is to get as big as it can, as quickly as it can, feasting on all that lovely fertility. I suspect that your clay soil is very fertile and is encouraging your climber to produce foliage and few flowers. I would avoid adding any more organic matter to your clay soil; simply provide a mulch layer with gravel or larger pebbles to shade the roots and conserve moisture, without adding any extra fertility, which promotes leaf growth. Pruning Honeysuckles can fall into two main groups, depending on their flowering times. There are those that flower in early summer, which should be pruned immediately after flowering, and those that flower in late summer, such as your 'Serotina', which simply need a light trim in the spring. Reduce the plant by about one third to keep it tight against your fence. Pruning at the wrong time would be detrimental to the flowering performance of your honeysuckle, but I do not think this is the case, as your pruning in the autumn would not compromise the following year's blooms. Light levels Flowering lonicera need high levels of sunlight to encourage flowers, and your south-facing trellis would certainly provide that. For other readers who suffer with a similar issue, a lack of sunlight may be a factor as to why their honeysuckles are not flowering. Moisture Excessively dry soils would also cause a honeysuckle not to produce flowers. Although clay soils sit wet during the winter months, just make sure that your clay soil is not drying out excessively during the summer. If this is the case, then water your climber during dry periods, especially when flower buds are developing. Fertilisers Fertilisers such as sulphate of potash will increase the levels of potassium, which will promote flowering but also add other nutrients such as nitrogen, encouraging more leafy growth, so proceed with caution. An application of sulphate of potash at the beginning of the growing season, at the rate of a handful per square yard, may help to encourage flowering, but don't overdo it. Replace Finally, probably the most fatalistic view is that some varieties are better performers than others. Although 'Serotina' has an award of garden merit, which is usually a benchmark that I would recommend using as a plant buying guide, an alternative cultivar you could try would be 'Graham Thomas', with white flowers that fade to yellow, in the hope that you might get more success. Alternatively, a Clematis viticella type or a Trachelospermum might be worth a try.