How to trim cape honeysuckle for flowers

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Cape honeysuckle is great here in the Phoenix area. It doesn't mind the heat, and the very best part of it is that it blooms in the fall and winter, when it's perfect for your out-of-town friends to visit, and maybe sit outside.

But there's a trick to making this plant look its best, and getting blooms in the winter. And it takes two tools - an electric trimmer, and a hand pruner.

In the summer, when it's over 100 degrees and I want to just keep the plant from getting out of control, I give it a good haircut with my small electric trimmer. I keep my plants about three feet tall, but left alone they can get much taller, and very viney, and rangy. So in the summertime I trim to keep the shape fairly tight. Then in the winter it's time to put away the electric trimmer and get a hand pruner.

Watch what you're doing. Go ahead and trim off branches that obviously have no bloom starting (you'll recognize the difference - the one I'm about to trim off in the pic just has leaves). Take your time. Trim away any unsightly leaves, or any stalk that's starting to get too long and viney. But leave the flowers alone until they're spent, and be especially sure not to cut off flower buds.

Cape honeysuckle flower bud. Don't cut this off!

If you don't have cape honeysuckle in your garden, go get some. They're common, and cheap. Yeah, you can get them at Home Depot. Get them small, they grow fast. And unless it's the dead of winter or the extreme heat of summer, you can plant them anytime. Take a close look at the plant - learn what the flower buds look like. Then trim away! You'll have a lot of flowers, and more and more as the temps get cooler.

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