Does my honeysuckle look OK or is dying?

[Kentuki]

Got a honeysuckle to try and cover an awkward bit of fence, it’s been in the ground about five weeks. It’s put on a lot of height but I don’t think it looks quite well, it’s gone quite leafless at the bottom and some of the leaves look sad and pale. Never grown a honeysuckle before so not sure. It’s west facing but only get a a few hours of sun int be afternoon. We’ve always really struggled getting anything going in this bed.

That’s fine. Worry more about what’s happening at the top end - it’s still got good healthy shoots.

The shoots are a bit straggly - it’s putting its efforts into long shoots to reach the sun. You’ll probably find when it flowers that most of the flowers will be above the height of the fence

Thanks Mere!! That’s reassuring coming from you.

It needs more trellis and some of the stems tying in horizontally across the trellis rather than vertically up it.

Leaving it vertical like that will mean a bare, woody bottom and flowers at the top.

Though if there’s room you could plant a small, evergreen shrub in front to cover the bare bottom and then flowers at the top won’t matter so much.

Brilliant thanks, that makes sense

stems tying in horizontally across the trellis rather than vertically up it. It's trying to get to the top of the "tree canopy" before flowering, and it will know it's got there because there'll be nothing to support it and its stems will flop horizontally. So it will start flowering. That's why tying a climber horizontally or in an arch will often stimulate flowering.