Campsis radicans, trumpet vine

I know most of you are thinking I want to kill one! Not the case here, I want to plant one and I am well aware of it's potentially invasive nature in the US.However this is Japan and many people grow them even in small gardens without any great problems.
The trumpet vine is one of the the joys of summer here. My question is,really how much sun does it need to thive and so on, is planting position important relating to it's health and not it's habit, Moisture and soil requirements ect. Please no lectures on why not to plant one. Positive knowledgeable answers is what I'm looking for here.

pajonica

I had a huge one that grew on the east side of the house. It actually climbed the gutters all the way to the second floor then started to grow inside the house through my daughter's bedroom window. Anyway, east is a good location, but my sister has one in full sun also. So take your pick.

I had one growing up the east side of an oak tree. I would estimate it received about 3-4 hours of morning sun. It was in average soil, and the only water it received was when it rained. It never had as many blooms as I thought it should have for its size, so maybe more sun would be better if you want lots of blooms.

By the way, it never spread until the tree had to be cut down, and now trumpet vine "babies" keep popping up all around the area. A bit disconcerting to me since they're coming up in a flower bed.

Oh Please............................please tell me how to get rid of this plant. I have it coming up 20 feet all around the initial "mother" plant. I keep pulling them up but most never come up from root.They just keep on going, going and going. I am in my mid seventies and geesh, hate to think of the day coming when I can no longer pull those rascals out of the ground. I will be covered over with them. My neighbor sent off and got a plant called hummingbird vine, NOT knowing it was this. Most of the nursery books/catalogs we get in the mail call it that. Well, when she got it and opened it up, she threw it away. This plant grows like wild around here. It does attract hummingbirds which I like, but that is the only thing I like about this very invasive plant. Oh, my plant grows in semi shade and blooms fairly well.
Can anyone help me though, with ridding my gardens of this vine?

The trumpet vine is really not that invasive here in Japan, at least no worse than wisteria.I'm, as I said in my post I looking for growing information and not reasons why I don't want one. I already have one in a different location
that is at least 40 years old and is now struggling to produce flowers and vigorous growth I think it may soon die
of natural causes. Natural causes that may well be the reason it is not nearly as invasive here as it is in the US.

pajonica

pajonica - If the trumpet vine you have is over 40 years old, that means it probably has been happy where it is. Perhaps you could check those conditions and look for similar conditions to plant the new vine in.

Pajonica, we had this vine when we lived in Virginia (zone 7b). We started it in full sun, but it spread everywhere by underground runners, including under the house's porch where it was in pure clay soil and total shade. It flowered best when in least a half day's sun, but grew anywhere and everywhere.

Seedy1, here's wishing you the best of luck. We tried everything to eliminate this beast (I know it's a native, but it took over our world) and never succeeded; the stuff under the porch (which we couldn't reach to try to eradicate) kept sending it back out into every bed and the lawn. I hated moving out of the area, but was ever so happy to leave that blasted vine behind.

Does anybody have a photo of their beast? I'm Thinking ours is a different variety! Otherwise I don't know why they seem to hold in check hear. Many people grow them in very small gardens. I counted 15 in my immediate
neighborhood this morning all well established but with no apparent problems. Sorry you guys are having so much trouble with the little devils. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

pajonica

Profound apologies to all, for today I've made a discovery! The trumpet vines here are always planted in sunken concrete containers. I stopped and chatted with one of my neighbours, no mean feat in Japanese I can tell you!
He told me that anybody that plants one in the soil ought to be shot, a little extreme I thought. I then got into the car and drove to my other house to take a closer look at the plant I have there, low and behold just under the surface concrete! Sure explains why it's almost dead at around 40 years old.
Thank you all for making me take a second look, in spite of my plea for positive answers, your wisdom has possibly saved me from being shot!

pajonica

That explains a lot. Maybe you can try root trimming your old plant. It may have run out of growing room in the underground cement container. Just a guess though.

Actually my new discovery has left me with a great deal to think about. These containers apparently hold around a cubic metre of soil and are usually professionally installed, the Japanese not being great do it your selfers. Digging a hole big enough for one of these
sounds like a fairly major job and what to do with all that horrid clay sub soil? I may destroy
the old one, clean out the container and replant a new one, even that sounds like a task and a half!

pajonica

Pajonica, I know that invasives in one area may be well-mannered in another, so was willing to suspend disbelief while reading how reasonable the campsis vine was in your area; but your discovery of the buried pot makes it clear that the vine would likely be invasive for you, too. Trust me, you don't want to set that beast loose in Japan. It's a "take-no-prisoners" creature even here where it's native. If you truly enjoy it and want to grow it safely there, the labor-intensive project of digging out and replanting in the original container sounds like the way to go. Or, given the plant's impressive will to survive, you might be able to simply severely cut back the vine as it is and allow it to regrow from the roots; perhaps first taking a cutting to root in a pot in case that doesn't work. Containing the roots seems to be the key to controlling it; and the huge existing buried pot should serve that purpose well, as it's done in the past.

PS Your neighbor's opinion may seem harsh; but having tried for years to kill off our mistake in Virginia, I'm inclined to agree. You asked for no negative opinions, so I didn't mention the fact that in addition to being unkillable, the campsis wound itself around and killed many many other more desirable plants. Nothing in the world would make me plant this again; we got it the first time in a pack of "wildlife-friendly" wildflower seeds, another mistake we'll never make again.

As a result of my chat with my neighbour he invited me round to his for a cup of sake or two, we spent the evening
talking about gardening. He is my very first gardening pal in Japan! Hey all's well that ends well.

Thanks

Jon

Just ran across this thread
This is a photo of the trumpet vine that grows here .
The humming birds love it . It seems to prefer the most sun it can get, it grows wild on fence row posts and is covered with flowers.

Pajonica, good for you: a garden pal in the neighborhood is a wonderful thing!

Gardengus, yes, that's the vine we had in Virginia. But after the first year we discovered that we'd created a monster, and began trying to eradicate it; from that point on it never flowered again, understandably, so we just had a constantly reappearing problem.
Ruth

I have enjoyed this thread so much!! Everyone handled it so well.
I too wanted it (wildlife, etc.) and even planted it....but since read more and pulled it up. It is still around from local wild ones though. It is great to share your experiences, because reading similar things to what some of you have said is what changed my mind a year ago or so.

my zone is 5a and it is a wonderfull vine here everyone love it I have two orange, one is yellow and a white one, I just love mine and have no problem with any of them I have trained them to grow as part tree with one large stem up to four feet and I trim it at 10 feet which promotes blooms, vines are an art and they need serious care to keep them in check think of grape vines and how they are cut back to a couple of nodes in the late fall and kept trim to promote more and larger grapes well all vines are the same if they are fertized and trimmed they will behave if not they feel deprived and will send of shoot and grow to huge sizes to ensure the survival

If you don't have trouble with it, it's probably because you're in a colder zone--in warmer climates it doesn't matter what you do with it, it can easily get out of control and become a problem.

Well said ecrane.

I remember reading in Fine Gardening years ago -- a disgruntled reader who was upset at the maligning of kudzu. It is a well behaved "annual" vine in Minnesota. Here, it is a terribly invasive pest called "The vine that ate the south." It strangles trees and even covers buildings, growing at a prodigious rate. So Climate is everything in the pest-or-not discussion.

Amen, ecrane and cedar; it's amazing to me how differently plants can became in different climates, even if the zones are similar. Vinca minor was a major thug here in our garden in the "temperate rain forest," western NC mountains, but our friend in northern VA (same zone but much hotter, drier summers) finds it very restrained if not hard to grow. Location location really is everything (lol).

Must say I find it hard to believe that kudzu is well-behaved Anywhere, but that certainly proves the point.

This is where climate zoning really falls down as it only relates to minimum winter temps.
Kudzu is an excellent example. Kudzu can survive quite cold winter temps but requires a hot humid summer
with plenty of rain to thrive. I am sure there are many other plants that fall into this category including the
dreaded trumpet vine!

So true, pajonica-
Ruth

I also find that it depends what kind of gardener you are some plants need constant care like regular trimming etc.. to keep them in line, and some people do not have the patience to keep up with the work since I am OCD I have never had a problem keeping my plants how and where I want them and I have grown some stuff that most people just think I am nuts to grow but I love either the flower or the foliage and most of them I got for free from people wanting to get rid of them

I would expect the trumpet vine would be comparatively benign in zone 5, having little or no frost in winter and a
hot, wet humid summer here, makes a huge difference to this plants performance and potential to become invasive.

Jon

I agree, pajonica. Scicciarella, I've had pretty good success controlling some other plants that have a reputation for aggression in the garden, eg. physostegia; but if you know how to control a plant like campsis that spreads by underground runners, sometimes popping up as far as 30' away from its original site, I do wish you'd share your secret. When trimming to the ground, digging, or careful application of an herbicide just makes it laugh and emerge somewhere else, I don't think careful trimming and patience are going to control it. I accept that it can be managed in your climate zone, and I envy that; but in mine, or in an even warmer zone like pajonica's, campsis runs amok despite your best efforts.

I really think the secret is the climate, many "garden thugs" aren't as aggressive when you get closer to the cold end of their hardiness range. Definitely staying on top of things will keep things under control better than if you let everything go, but these plants in some climates are going to misbehave no matter how much you stay on top of things.

it helps if you plan for the plant since they run it helps to dig down and put a deep border so keep it in check and fertilize so it does go looking for a better place to be, I also grow wisteria with a problem when a new shoot comes up I cut it off at the mother pland then cut off six inches off the new stem and use white vinagar it kills it, it also works for sumack and other invasive plants