Please help me choose a container for honeysuckle
Hello all
We've just moved and we have no garden, just a smallish terrace at the back of the house. We have some railings along one edge I want to grow an evergreen honeysuckle there for screening, the scented flowers and nectar for pollinators.
I understand that large plants need large pots. I also seem to remember reading somewhere that if one is going to insist on trying to keep honeysuckle in a pot, they like their roots deep. With both these points in mind, I've been shopping around for pots with a diameter of about 50cm. I also found one other option, a very tall (79cm) but narrower (39cm). In the pictures below it's (probably rather obviously!) the middle one, white in colour. Would this shape be suitable, or should I just go for a big tub or egg-shaped pot, like the other pots illustrated? I assume that at first I should keep it in slightly smaller pots, potting up gradually until I reach the full size pot, so to speak. What do you think of this?
Does anybody have any thoughts on this please? I am quite prepared to keep the plant well fed and to have to be quite ruthless when pruning! As far as varieties go, I was thinking of maybe Halliana (I know, I knooooooow, it's huge... 
) or Princess Kate.
All feedback welcomed!
Posts
I'd go for the biggest - it looks like the fourth down. I wouldn't use a metal one (is the top one metal?) as it would heat up and honeysuckle like their roots to be cool.
Whichever one you use I'd line the insides with a good thick wad of newspaper before putting the compost in as even more insulation against the roots being heated by the walls of the pot if it gets too warm.
I'd also plant your honeysuckle plant straight into your big tub as if it was going into the ground, not into a smaller pot first.
As honeysuckle are woodland plants I'd use a mixture of John Innes No 3 loam based potting medium and I'd add some leafmould to that. I'd I'd also add some of the water retentive granules vhttps://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=692 to help ensure that the roots don't dry out as this will make the plant susceptible to powdery mildew.
I don't know 'Princess Kate' as it's fairly newly introduced, but it looks like a good one - if you choose that one (and I hope you do
) let us know how you get on 
Good luck
I'd go for the biggest pot too. I think Halliana would be too big. I have lost 2 honeysuckles in pots, but one was Henryii which can be tender and we had a very cold winter when it died, the other I think was planted in too deep shade but it was covered in aphids and mildew. I was looking up a variety that would be suitable to plant in a pot and came across this one http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/lonicera-periclymenum-rhubarb-and-custard/classid.2000020958/
Thank you all for your input. I think I've finally settled on a pot. I did find ones up to 70cm wide but that would just take up too much room on the terrace I'm afraid. This one is more realistic for us. What do you think? A VERY rough (because of the awkward shape and allowing for thickness of the shell etc.) calculation of the volume suggests I should have at least 60 litres to play with, which actually puts it on a par with the big black tub (the fourth one down in the picture in my original post). The roots of the plant will be sheltered by the low wall on which the railings were built, so no problems there, they'll stay nice and cool!
P.S. The variety I really wanted was periclymenum 'Scentsation', but I've found such varying accounts of its eventual spread that I was left in some doubt. Different sources gave me details ranging from a 1.5m x 2.5m spread all the way up to 3m x 8m!!! Anyone here know more about this variety?