i don't have my eastern botanical references here in california, so i can't look this up, but are you referring to swamp fly honeysuckle? it has a bright red, twin berry that is fused and rather oblong. i see it growing at my folks place in northern new england. i can collect some seed next time i'm there if that's what you're looking for.

Christie - I have "Blanche Sandman" and didn't get chance to notice if they went to it or not. It was in an odd spot and not easy for me to see and I had so many other hummer plants out there that they were all over the different plants when not at the feeder. I have seen "Alabama Crimson" and "Magnifica" at nearby nurseries and they are similar-looking to "Blanche Sandman" as far as I could tell (aside from slight differences in color intensity - I think the Crimson was more reddish, the Magnifica more orangey, and my Blanche Sandman has more red/pink in it). In general, they go for just about any native or native cross honeysuckle. I also have a Mandarin honeysuckle and each year, they buzz around it waiting for it to bloom. LOL That one is a bright burnt orange & yellow, but the flowers have tubes that are longer than L. sempervirens and its popular cultivars.

It sounds as if the root ball is tangled, and it's not taking up nutrients and moisture. Take it out of the soil, uncoil the roots, cut off any bad ones, soak it in some vitamin B water for 24 hours, and replant it in GOOD soil, ammended with compost. See the difference in about a month!

I have hummingbirds visiting my Lonicera semperivirens and my bell-shaped clematis, but not the more open faced clematis blooms. There are clematis that grow 4'-6 and many that grow taller'. Most would twine through the fence, but others such as C. integrifolia and its hybrids don't climb on their own and so would need clipping onto the fence. I don't know of any small statured L. Sempervirens cultivars; in my experience they would need fairly intensive training to go sidewaysor diagonal, on the fence. Every couple of days for the first few seasons you would want to go out to make sure that they were growing sideways or diagonal rather than straight up, which is their preference IME. They grow by twining stems around the support, and they then start turning woody and are more work to move. Over time they might bend the fence a bit. In my garden they grow straight up to the top of a support and then flop over unless trained to do otherwise. I haven't ever needed to tie it to the structure, but you might need to in order to keep it going the direction you want. IME L. sempervirens doesn't need a minimum height to bloom since mine began blooming after a couple years when it hadn't reached the top of a 5' trellis.