How to Prune a Cape Honeysuckle

The orange, trumpet-shaped flowers and small, oval, bright green leaves of the cape honeysuckle add a dazzling splash of color to the landscape. This vigorous grower will form a small to medium-size shrub up to 6 feet tall with yearly pruning. When allowed to climb, the branches can reach 25 to 30 feet tall. Cape honeysuckle is native to South Africa; in the United States it grows well in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 to 11. Cape honeysuckle blooms abundantly between November and January. Additional flowering continues throughout the year. Prune cape honeysuckle in the spring after the main flowering is over.

• 1

  Remove all frost-damaged branches. Use pruning shears to cut away the damaged branches as close to the new green wood as possible.

• 2

  Stand back and look at the entire cape honeysuckle shrub to get a sense of the overall shape you desire. Remove some of the oldest canes at the base of the plant. You can take out up to a third of the old, tough wood at a single yearly pruning without damaging the plant.

• 3

  Prune the top and sides of the shrub to create a tidy appearance. Make clean cuts straight across the branch. Thin out areas that are thick with branches crossing and touching each other.

• 4

  Remove growth that is hanging over and brushing on the ground to lift the growth and improve appearances. Cape honeysuckle is tolerant of heavy pruning and can withstand severe trimming every year.