Honeysuckle/Obelisk Disaster

Hi there! i'm a complete newbie and would love if someone had some miracle remedy for my honeysuckle issue...

It was a well-established plant, probably had been in situ about 20 years and I had to move it due to completely changing the unloved, unkempt garden very early in 2019.

I cut it down to almost ground level and put in a pot, with a tall obelisk (which I am now kind of regretting), thinking that it wouldn't grow much in the first year. How wrong was I? it flew up the obelisk and being a complete novice, i trained it upwards rather than round and round to start with.

So now I have a 4 ft obelisk with the honeysuckle going absolutely bonkers at the top and very little all the way down. The shoots coming out at the top aren't very keen on being trained downwards and I'm now regretting the whole obselisk option and wish I'd replanted in the garden with an arch or against the fence.

Any ideas on how I can extract without risking cutting it all the way back again and killing it? I fully appreciate this may not have an answer I will like :-)

thank you!

 

Hi and Welcome to the Forum,

Thats more the typical growth for a climbing honeysuckle and we would plant it expecting it to grow that way.

Expect you can let it grow or be trained more horizonatally, but you will need to keep on top of it during those growth spurts.

Normally you would need to leave it till the end of the season to cut it back down again to get it out of that obelisk, but as its still early in the season think we would try cutting it down to about 500mm , carefully replanting without disturbing the roots or even leaving it in the planter , planted in the soil if needed.

 

thanks ricky101, i was going to cut it back and move it but have noticed some buds on it so am going to leave it until after it's flowered as I don't want to miss that!