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Mexican Honeysuckle

Lonicera sp.

For the next month or two, until your plant is established, i recommend keeping it between 55 and 75 degrees, day and night. After that, i would protect it from temperatures below 40. I don't know if the plant has any frost tolerance.

The first 2 or 3 weeks, keep it in bright shade or well-filtered sun. Then you can move it into tree-filtered sunlight or the equivalent. I don't know how much prolonged sun exposure it can take.

I'd start it in a 1 gallon pot, and repot in about 3-4 months, or when the roots circle the bottom. Then into a 5-10 gal. pot, which should hold it indefinitely.

For soil, i would use equal parts of perlite and high-quality potting soil. If your soil has lots of perlite to begin with, add a little less perlite.

Most potting soils have fertilizer, so give no added fertilizer the first 3 weeks. Then feed based on growth, giving small doses on your small plant, and larger doses as it grows larger. So start it with about 1/4 strength all-purpose fertilizer, about every 4-6 weeks. When in doubt, underfeed it. If the older leaves turn yellow, it probably needs a little more fertilizer.

Keep the soil evenly moist most of the time (but not soggy). You can use a moisture meter probe ($5 from garden centers) to check down at the root zone.

Ideally the plant would grow 10 feet up into a bush or trellis, but you can use a 5 x 3 foot trellis - just wrap the branches around it as they grow.

When your plant is larger, you can root 6" cuttings, to experiment with in different lighting and temperature situations.

Good luck with it!

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