Almost in February so I am closer to the pruning time. I just want to make sure I am going to prune right, so I thought I would check in another time, offer some pictures and drop a possible bomb. Yes.. the neighbors adjacent to me would like to build a fence across their back yard, however the fence where my grape vines are hanging on the chicken wire would need to move out 3ft in the direction of the neighbors, so that they don't enclose my fruit trees in their yard (since I had planted my apple, cherry and peach trees on the outside of my fence). So now I really am worried I'm really going to screw up my grape production as the chicken wire has to come down and the grape 'trunks' and vine system needs to be swayed inward toward my back yard and trellised on wire. So here's what I have done so far. I freed the trunk vines out of the chicken wire (grew through it in places and would have had interrupted circulation in a couple years I suspect) and then tried to make sense out the tangled mess of vines with 1st, 2nd and 3rd year's growth (assuming I count the year I planted them as year 0.. like 7" tall sticks in 2007.. is that wrong?). The vines are more of less straightened and here's what I want to do.. The wood that is the lightest color at the tips of each arm is the summer 2010 wood, right? .. so I leave 30 buds on that for each arm I want to trellis, right? I bought 1/8" wire rope to thread through 2 sets of needle hooks I screwed in some 4"x8' posts I had already sunk in the ground. My idea is that I want to bend the vines from that back corner of the yard over to the right (as shown in these photos below). The arms of the vines will be attached to the two sets of wires that are 30" apart. Will this work? I realize I might be a bit unconventional, but my yard is truly cramped and if this works to get me good production, I'll be thrilled. My neighbor's house diagonally behind mine offers me no privacy, so I have thought of getting with my neighbor that has the welder in his garage, picking up some scrap metal and making a trellis to attach to the tops of the wooden posts, and then train some vines up there both for added production and screening of said neighbors. Nothing like them having a BBQ and looking uncomfortably in my back yard as the sweaty gardener has blackened hands and sweat pouring down his face. lol Here are the 'trunks' I have 2 plants, but all the compost and mulch I dumped over the last 4 years had caused the one plant on the left to split\root a few times looks like: From 01252011 This is just to the right of the trunks. Most of the vines are directed here, though I have a few really long ones on the right side out of the picture frame too. From 01252011 Here is where I am attaching the wire and directing those monstrous vines, so the wires will go from the trunks to the right and then make a right angle along the rear fence between those posts. From 01252011 Here is a shot of the whole setup: From 01252011 So please offer some recommendations of getting this thing in control without sacrificing much production. This will be the going into the 4th year of growth in the spring. Our lost frost date here is around May 5th I believe, so how long should I wait before I start pruning?

Al, if the only honeysuckle you've ever smelled is the Japanese, you're in for a surprise! The fragrance of the woodbines (periclymenum, x heckrottii, x americana, etc.) are as different from Lonicera japonica as jasmine and roses are different. The Japanese honeysuckle has a tropical fragrance, but the woodbines have a scent that evokes a cottage garden. Scentsation is the same species (periclymenum) as Winchester, but is less vigorous and less colorful, lacking the reddish tints to the exterior of the flower. The clematis 'Sweet Summer Love' puzzles me. It's supposedly a hybrid of Clematis paniculata (terniflora, etc.) and some viticella variety, but the fragrance and foliage more closely resembles clematis flammula. a VERY heavy, almost sickly sweet almond scent, rather than the hawthorney fragrance of paniculata. Plus, it blooms much earlier. I liken it to almonds, Double Bubble bubble gum, and baking bread. In your garden, both vines should be in bloom together for a while, though the honeysuckle will be weeks if not months ahead of the clematis. You'll have some pruning issues, because the clematis needs to be pruned HARD in the spring, almost to the ground, but the honeysuckle only needs grooming.

Your honeysuckle will be seeking the light. Since the lawn side is shady it will inevitably go up and search for the sun. However, I can't see any advantage in buying and planting new plants when you could just cut down the current plants which are already well established. They will grow away again much faster than new plants. Then, as they start to throw out new shoots train them through the trellis to the sunny (patio) side and then horizontally back and forth across the patio side of the fence rather than letting them go up without check. No honeysuckle will give you 'a nice thick screen of flowers.' You will get a screen of foliage with flowers in it. So even if you lose this season's flowers you will still have a green screen. Planting anew will not achieve this.

I have a very similar corner bed. The backdrop is my most favorite vine, evergreen wisteria. Here in Dallas, it is rarely evergreen (although it is this year!) But where you are it definitely will be. You'll have to make sure your fence is sturdy because it will eventually get big. Then attach lattice to the fence. (Easy, cheap, and pretty.) and plant it in the ground in the back of the corner. Don't plant full sun bulbs right under it (take it from me) because eventually that will be shade. Full sun annuals are find for the first couple of years though. But out toward the front edge can be full sun. I have to relearn how to insert pictures because I have some!