Help identifying and pruning a Honeysuckle.

Hey guys,

My parents garden has a Honeysuckle scrambling up an arch. Its probably about 10 years old and has never been pruned. There seems to be a lot of scraggly, woody bits to it and it produces almost no leaves or flowers.

I want to reinvigorate it to become more productive, but not sure which species / variaty it is ... and so can't look up how and when to prune it.

Any ideas?

- Gary.

If, and when you get it to flower, that will help identify the variety, not just from it's appearance but from the fragrance too. Some don't have any smell of note, so that would rule some out

They are worth the effort of tidying up and you should get a good, healthy plant as long as you don't go too drastic. Once it starts romping away you can tie in to whatever it's attached to to stop it flopping about.  I put a good dollop of manure at the base of mine when it starts showing signs of growing away and getting plenty of buds

I think yours needs renovation rather than just tidying up given that it seems to be struggling to deliver the goods.

Cut it back to a minimum of 2', give it a sprinkling of general fertiiser, mulch, then wait to see what happens. Early spring is the recommended time.

I wouldn't worry too much at this stage what variety it is - you will have more clues when it flowers (i.e. early or late, scented or otherwise, flower colour.)

If it is a Dutch variety like Belgica (yes, confusing innit!) as I mentioned previously it seems to be an aphid magnet. A friend of mine had to give up on one which consistently succumbed to them to the extent the flowers never opened. It's possible the aphids may have transmitted a virus too, although I don't know how common that is with honeysuckles.

Don't know where you live Hamani because you haven't put your location in your personal profile, but it certainly isn't early spring here!   

Shouldn't make much difference if you do decide to prune it sooner through - honeysuckle is pretty tough stuff.