you can TRAIN a vine to whatever you want to grow it on .... and the trick there.. is proper timing for pruning ... so you dont go cutting off that seasons flowering wood ...

they can be rather aggressive over the decades ... i wouldnt go all instant gratification.. and over plant ....

i know of no vine that has height requirements to flower ... but that might be a function... on some vines.. as to the age of wood that blooms ....

spacing is a function of your goal .... and you dont state such ... do you want the entire 40 feet a monoculture???

ken

1. I thought vines naturally grab and climb? What would it do if I planted it at the base of the fence and did nothing?

2. Poison ivy is one vine that won’t flower on the ground.

3. Yes I was thinking a monoculture just due to the red/orange color of the blooms. I’m looking at hummingbird food options here. I suppose I could mix it with... ? ... passionflower and/or clematis? Thx

Not all vines have the ability to grab and climb. Lonicera has no pads or tendrils to assist but it will be easy to twine it through the chain link. I use cut up pieces of pantyhose to loosely tie my Lonicera to the trellis it is "climbing" until it has twined enough that it no longer needs it.

Hummingbirds have never visited my Clematis, but others may have had a different experience.

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.

I'd consider mixing the L. sempervirens with another species of honeysuckle, both to prolong and diversify the bloom cycle and to add fragrance. Lonicera periclymenum, woodbine or European honeysuckle, produces (usually) bicolored and very fragrant flowers and has not demonstrated any invasive tendencies. Also very attractive to hummingbirds.

And hummingbirds visit my clematis frequently :-) But I grow mostly species clems so they might be better nectar producers than the large flowered hybrids most find popular.

In my garden adding another type of vine wouldn't prolong the bloom since my L. Sempervirens 'Major Wheeler' literally has blooms from midMay until the vine totally freezes some time in November. But it definitely could add fragrance and diversity.

who knew.. when i planted it on a fence 15 years ago.. and then ignored it.. i was pushing the envelope ... lol ...

i dont remember what type mine is ... if it matters.. according to L type ...

ken

Wow this is great info!! “Major wheeler” sounds perfect for my application. This is in my native garden so I don’t want to plant an Asian or European species.

to clarify- if I were to plant another vine such as passionflower, would I “interplant” it with the honeysuckle to try to get orange and purple flowers right next to each other, or would I plant it in different areas of the fence line so it’s different sections?