Directing honeysuckle on wall/trellis to create natural division

JoeA81

Hello,

I am trying to create a kind of "soft" natural division between us and our neighbours garden wall, as their house is higher up than ours and they can almost look over the wall when they stand on their patio. I have got as far as you can see below. The Honeysuckle has climbed up the trellis, and has now reached the top - but Im not sure what to do next?

I would like for eventually the honeysuck to add some extra height to the wall and be thick enough for a bit more privacy, but where do I send the shoots next? Do I make it grow along the top of the wall, or keep to going skywards? Add more trellis?



Any ideas gratefully recieved!

Cheers,

Joe

aliasojo

Personally I would have perhaps bought or made, a higher trellis to start with and had it sticking up past the wall by maybe around a foot/18" for the plant to climb up further.

If you don't have anything above the wall, the plant will likely just spill down the other side I think, at least partly. How might your neighbours feel about a plant they didn't plant being on/in their garden?

Perhaps you could buy a fan shaped trellis add-on? It would be more decorative whilst the plant is growing and would provide support once it has grown more?

Janey3

I would suggest an add-on trellis too, to give extra height, or take the original one off and reposition it a bit further up the wall.

JoeA81

Thanks for the suggestions.

I agree that a higher trellis would be the preferred solution, but I am trying to be a bit subtle about it, and didnt really want to whack up a socking great bit of trellis above the wall that kind of bluntly says "I dont want to see your face!" to my neighbours.

Maybe I am trying to be too sensetive, but we get on really well with our neighbours and I wouldnt want them to think that we are trying to fence ourselves off from them. I was hoping to create this "growing" barrier over the course of a few years so that it was a gradual thing rather than an immediate physical barrier that suddenly appears.

aliasojo

Well a less 'in your face' but also less 'neater' (imo) solution might be to tie bamboo canes to the trellis and stretch twine across them.

That just looks like you're giving the plant extra to hold onto and the canes and twine would be hidden once it grew.

Personally I woud be happier if a neighbour just put up a nice trellis rather than twine and sticks but we're all different and you've got to feel comfortable with what you do.

If you get on well, why don't you just say, 'I fancy adding a fan shaped top to the trellis to train my plant through but it will stick up above the wall a wee bit, would that be ok with you?'

stumpycat

You can loop the top bit of the honeysuckle round and secure it with cable ties, then as it keeps growing, make more loops (like the coils of barbed wire on top of fences! lol)
It'll get woody and create a frame for itself for next year.

JoeA81

Thanks for all the suggestions - I might give that looping over idea a try - I was thinking of tying them down somehow to direct the shoots anyway, but your suggestion will make me give it a go. If it doesnt work then higher trellis might have to be the answer.

Cheers!

Kay_Peel

Honeysuckle is very difficult to "train". It's very floppy when not in flower.

I have one that I cut back aggressively in Spring. It still manages to grow up a six foot trellis and into a 12 foot tree where it waves about at the top of the branches. The rest of it just flops over the fence and into next door's garden where my neighbour's benefit from the flowers, scent and berries. They love it!

It does much better in a shady part of the garden, under a huge tree, where it can scramble up to 20 feet, doesn't need tying in or cutting back and can wave about as much as it likes.

Personally, I would plant a tall, upright evergreen shrub like an Escallonia for privacy


or a Pyracantha



and I would let my honeysuckle scramble through it.

Good luck!