are trumet vines really actually EVIL??

Okay, so I usually drag myself away when I want to impulse buy at the nursery but I thought I was familiar enough with the trumpet vine to buy the yellow one I fell in love with yesterday (campus radicans "flava"). When I got home and started researching I was shocked! Can this vine be planted anywhere near other flower beds or within a mile of your home lol? Can it be planted with a Wisteria vine I already have to extend the bloom time or will it choke that out too?

I've seen this beautiful vine for years in my neighborhood but everything I've read today makes me think I've made a mistake and bought an invasive monster capable of strangling an oak tree. I was hoping some DG'ers could give me some input - Thanks!

The yellow isn't as invasive as the orange, nor is it as hardy. It will do fine in your zone, and it will get massive. There is one in KCMO that goes up to the top of a telephone pole and back down again - it looks like a beautiful yellow veil. The city was having it removed when I moved from there.

I would certainly be wary of where you plant it if it were me. I pull up small trailer loads of the orange from all over my yard every year and use roundup - the mother plant is going up through a huge live oak and has spread, by suckering and seeds, all over the area.

well that's not very good news I guess - I'd love a hardy flowering vine for my zone besides my roses and wisteria but that's seriously scary that it's suckering that much for you. And I really don't use any chemicals in the yard if at all possible so that's intimidating lol! Would you replant if you had the choice now?

How's the tree yours is growing in? I'd read that it can girdle even a fairly mature tree and kill it.

I didn't plant it originally. No, I would not plant it, given a choice. I would plant Bignonia capreolata, a beautiful vine with orange trumpets, like the Campsis radicans, but not invasive.

The tree it's growing in is doing fine - no signs of girdling - I do keep the runners that start attaching to the trunk, cut off.

how big a pot do you need for the Bignonia capreolata? I've kept mine in the pot at the base of an Arbor, but now thinking it might not be big enough....

Mine is in a 3-gallon pot. Now that it's finished blooming, I will put it in the ground.

I love my Trumpet vine. Although I warn everyone that sees it. It isn't a plant for everyone or every place. I think it is a bit less invasive in the more northern climates but I need to dig out runners a couple of times a year to keep it under control. They come up within approx 15ft of the trellis but some of those might be seeded rather than runners. Mostly in the Evergreen planting next to the trellis. Those that come up in the grass just get mowed and aren't a problem at all. I haven't seen it spread beyond our property to neighboring yards or woods. I would call it aggressive more than invasive. I would be very careful planting it near flower beds. I can't really remember when I planted it but it must be at least 20 years old.

HollyAnn that is beautiful!!! Oh wow - that sounds worth the moderate maintenance you have to do!! I love that photo, thanks.

Part of the moderate maintenance is the location and I feel that it is well worth the effort. In a different area and a different garden it might be more of a problem so please listen to those with other experiences than I have had. If I had that growing in the middle of a flower garden it would probably be a very different story. Actually many years ago I had ordered 2 wisteria and one trumpet vine when my very small plants came I planted the 2 that looked the same on this trellis and the other one at a different location. Three years later when I got my first blooms I realized that the order had been mixed up and I had 2 trumpet vines growing where I had expected the wisteria. It all worked out but I can't sit inside and watch the hummers coming and going to the trumpet vine. I just sit on the front porch instead. Here is a winter scene where you can get a good look at the arbor Ric built and see the structure of the plant. I give it a good hair cut every year after it is done flowering and I collect all the seed pods I can reach before they ripen.

I know I'm weird but I love the Trumpet vine! I bought the Madame Galen because the blooms are suppose to be larger and should not take as long to bloom ... well it still took three years. I too started building an arbor to make shade for my Hostas ... but I had to move and could not complete it. I intend to do it again though.

I didn't realize it took that long to bloom - did you start it from seed or a nursery plant?

Since trumpet vine attaches to plants via small root hold-fasts rather than by twining, it will not girdle the tree it is climbing on. Wisteria can girdle a tree since it does twine, and circles the trunk and branches of a tree with its vines.

I wonder (and I'm probably overdoing it here) if I can plant the trumpet vine with the wisteria I started last year to prolong the bloom time. I have the wisteria planted on a huge sturdy pergola so I'm pretty sure that's fine, I wonder if it's just too much to have both vines together though.

I would think the wisteria would outgrow the trumpet vine since it grows so fast and the wisteria could girdle the trumpet vine with it's twining vines. I'd plant the trumpet vine separate from the wisteria.
My .02

If your pergola is sturdy enough to hold them then it would be a matter of taste. Not only do they bloom at different times but they leaf out at different times. My wisteria is just finishing up its blooms and has fully leafed out. The trumpet vine just started to leaf out last week it is always behind the wisteria.

okay - I'm still a little confused on this one - thank you so much treelover and hollyann for the ideas!

You are welcome, Personally I wouldn't what them on the same trellis as I like to give my plants space of their own. I am growing clematis and roses together. As I really like the look of them growing intertwined. But generally I don't mix my climbers like that.

I have the orange one...invasive! I truly have to keep pulling up runners and cutting it back. If the hummingbirds and bees didn't like it so much I would've ripped it out of the ground by now :o)

However...I do have two others - one growing under an oak - it must not like shade because it is very well behaved and does not grow much. The other is by the garage - surrounded by concrete walkways and a wall...also well behaved :o)

~ Cat

uggh I am so frustrated, I'm ready to just forget the whole idea. I can't believe so many nurseries sell this plant and yet it seems to be a monster for at least half the people who have it. I'm really just trying to resist temptation and not plant this one.

Go for it ... there is always Roundup! :)

lol :)

and there is something better than Round Up, its awfully expensive ... called Surflan ... and it does work ... I found a small bottle on the net. Someone told me they paid 169.00 for a gallon. It guarantees not to kill your plants ... probably would be a good idea to check the list that comes with the product ... just to see if Trumpet Vine is on there as a plant. I have no idea where my list is.

I have been pulling this up by the TONS for over 10 years now. I would NEVER plant it in the ground. Even the little ones are impossible to pull up. I have dug 2 ft. deep under a tiny plant & not found the end of the root. If you just try to pull them the stem just snaps off & the root is left in the ground & they regrow SO fast. I pull the same ones at least a half a dozen times in one season & they still just keep popping up everywhere. I have nightmares about this 'plant'.

ants

Edited to say: YES, I do believe this plant is actually EVIL... At least the ones in my yard are!

This message was edited Jun 29, 2010 11:37 PM

My yellow one has started blooming this year, its very pretty, but all over the place. MY neighbor had it growing all over and up the roof of the front porch. Now she has all those little spots where she tore it down. She thinks is gone, I dont have the heart to tell her its growing under the shrubs and has traveled under the concrete to my place. I will be ready to move by the time mine take over again. lol

I got some historic seeds here and none of my trumpets ever live or the seeds won't germinate, so I made one last effort this year to germinate some of the seeds. I had one short Campsis, for the last few years in a shadier area that never grew much, so I dug it up and it seems to have died after I transplanted it. Yesterday I dug a hole for some Celosia seeds and saw what I thought was another elm sapling and dug it out only to see it was part of my trumpet that I had dug up, that never grew. I am so upset, since I threw out the historic seeds thinking they were no longer viable but one germinated and died when I put it in the ground.

It had a tiny bit of root attached when I dug it out and the rest is still in the ground so it may come back yet. The one I dug out yesterday is in a pot and was alive in the morning and I B1'd it. I want to know what the trick is to this invasive vine, that has alluded invasion in my yard after 7 years of trying? Does it need a lot of water? Good drainage? Certain exposure????? I WANT TO BE INVADED DANG IT!

LOL, I haven't tried starting them by seeds but I get plenty of volunteers either by seed or root spreading. I can't really remember doing anything special when I first planted my TV but them at that time I was working with 4 children and a barn full of animals so I didn't have time to do much gardening. It was definitely a period that plants had to be strong to survive here. They got stuck in the ground and mostly ignored if they were lucky someone "might" water them. I have dug up several TV to share and I remember some of them didn't make it (or so I thought) I have found old pots that I let sit an 6 months later they are showing new green shoots coming up.

I can only hope, since it looked pretty crusty this morning. Come to think of it, my whole yard looked hard hit by the heat today. Thanks for the hope.

My yellow trumpet so pretty yet so scary! I see vines coming up in the ground on the other side of the yard.
I am going to try Surflan on the ground where the roots are.

That is pretty I have thought about adding a yellow trumpet to my arbor to mix in with the orange. I had a spot where it was coming up through my brick walk I hit that spot with Poison Ivy killer. I try to remove all the seed pods I find but you just can't see them all I have a few that I keep after and I see them popping up in the grass but RIc's mowing keeps that pretty much in check.

That is how hollyhocks are for me here. Their like gophers, you can't see all of the seeds but they are everywhere. Ya know what would help keep them from popping up. Buy the rolls of heavier grade roofing paper, it takes dogs, feet, stones etc. and blocks weeds and seeds from light. Nothing comes up, for many years. It even puts crab grass in check for the most part. (Except where the plant stems are poking through.)

trumpet vine never planted, living deep in the area, grows up all over everything like the wisteria in southern GA, northern FL, you cant see the top, and we just didn get all the woods cleared out well, -if I liked pines I would be worried abt this one. like the poisonous potato vine(thorney) its a constant battle to keep them managed

Humidity makes all the difference. It is dry as Heck here in the desert, they grow here at other people's houses, but not a weed like there in the South. Potato Vine either, they grow but not weedy. Virginia Creeper goes nuts here and hollyhocks, crabgrass too.

Holly I will send all the cuttings you want. lol I love the potato vine! I got a friend in Iowa I send potatoes every year. He grows them in a pot because they dont produce potatoes for him.

I planted a trumpet vine, orange, when I moved to this house 5 years ago, in the spring. It has never bloomed. The vine itself is very healthy, I constantly have to trim it back in places (like on the garage door), but no flowers. I read somewhere once that it can take several years for this plant to bloom. Is that true? Should I keep waiting or tear it out?

Mine took a good 3 years maybe a little longer.

I've seen several other threads where people talked about the trumpet vines taking a number of years to bloom, so if yours is healthy and getting enough sun then I'd just give it more time.

maybe it is like the wisteria. I was reading that you should cut a circle around the roots of a wisteria so that you only have the big main roots, also trim off the short lower shoots, maybe it is the same with the trumpet vine, both are rampant growers.

Has anyone every tried root barriers with this plant as with bamboo?

I took a start from my grandmother's plant. I don't recall that one ever getting that huge or going anywhere else in the yard. And mine was well behaved for a couple of years. But now suddenly I see there are babies coming up everywhere. I put it on a fence where I can mow them, but I'm feeling terrible that they are a good 20' into my neighbor's yard. If they reach her bushes I'll die of shame1 ;) I'm considering digging up the mother plant and growing it in a container or something. I wanted to mix red and yellow with this old orange, but I'm definitely trying to figure out the best way to keep this vine without being a bad neighbor.

I'm also looking for support ideas. I like the idea of having the vine look like a tree

I don't know but that is hard if it is encroaching in your neighbors yard. That happened to me once with a Mulberry tree we had that was 50 years old and our only shade, but it lifted our neighbors deck up.

Peonyrosegirl,
At my last house my neighbor had a trumpet vine that draped over our fence every summer. It was probably 15 years old. He cut it back to the main vine every spring to keep it in check. The runners from it came up in my raised veggie bed, so I just cut them off with a shovel and/or sprayed them with roundup. The maintenance on my part was well worth the beautiful scene we enjoyed for 2 months each summer. I miss it and am contemplating putting one in my new yard. But, my neighbor, Charlie, always cleaned up after it every fall-even in OUR yard! So, Charlie doesn't live next door anymore....pooh! I'm wondering if in your zone it would not be as rampant as in Texas, say.

Here's a photo of the trumpet vine.