Training a climber to fill a trellis?

robin 435

Hello
In the spring I erected a 6ft square trellis and planted a Honeysuckle Henryi which is a vigourous climber.

The plant now has 3 vines growing from the bottom, 2 of which have reached the top of the trellis. I'd like the plant to fill the trellis and become bushy across the top so what should I do next please?

Should I cut out the tips of the 2 vines which have reached the top to encourage it to spread out further down, or perhaps train these vines horizontally across the top of the trellis?

Or maybe I should just do nothing?

Thanks for advice
Robin ☺

Joy*

Climbing plants grow more if trained horizontally so I would tie the long shoots in along the top of the fence. You ought then to get more side shoots and possibly some flowers.

Fairygirl

It would have been better to have tied them in horizontally as they grew, if you want the bottom part covered.
If the third is still flexible, you could do that with it. The only other alternative is to cut back at least one of the others, and tie it in horizontally as it grows to get the coverage. Any climber will tend to just go vertically as it grows, unless persuaded to do otherwise.

Is the trellis against a wall or fence, or is it just free standing? Honeysuckles are really better covering structures if possible, as they have an untidy nature. You may have to spend a lot of time tieing in and trimming back if you have nowhere else for it to grow into.