What's wrong?

All the leaves are falling off my trumpet vine. What did I do wrong? Too much water? Not enough water? Don't see any signs of serious bugs, although the hoppers are here some, but not as bad as last year. This is the first year that it has produced buds, but none of them have actually bloomed. The buds develop into pretty good sized buds, but never open. Instead the just fall off when they get to be about an inch or inch and half long. Any body have any ideas? The leaves are green, just falling off. :-(

Overwatering and underwatering unfortunately can have similar symptoms sometimes so it's hard to say which one might be your problem...can you say a little more about what your soil's like, how often you're watering, etc? Also might help to do the finger test--just before you would have been planning on watering it next, try sticking your finger down a few inches into the soil and see how wet it feels.

Our soil is crap, lol! It's hard packed clay, although I have added compost and such to it over the years. I mulch with compost, but, you really can't tell, as it seems to just disappear with this dirt. I have been watering about twice a week. I didn't know that it was a trumpet vine until this year, as it was labeled a wisteria. Planted them last year, and it's about 4 ft tall, but did winter fine. The wisteria that I bought at the same time on the other side of the trellis is looking fine. The wisteria leafed out and came back much earlier than the trumpet this spring. I wasn't even sure that it made it thru the winter, it was that late. But when it did start, it leafed out fine and looked really good and put on buds fine. We had a very wet and late spring tho. Now it's been hot and dry, so am hoping that it just needs more water, lol!

Assuming you're giving it a decent watering (vs just a few seconds with the hose) twice a week I'd be shocked if that was too little water--trumpet vines don't need a ton of water and if your soil is still on the clay side at all it probably doesn't even need to be watered that often.

Maybe be too much water then :-( The leaves towards the bottom of the vine seem to be holding up much better and staying on better, which is why I thought that maybe it was too litlle water. I try to soak everything really good when I water instead of using a sprinkler, but seems like it's always a guessing game with me, lol! Also, I haven't watered them lately (for a month or so at least) with my manure tea, so wonder if they are needing that too?

Lack of fertilizer would likely make the leaves show other signs of distress (yellowing, etc) rather than falling off (although to be fair, many times a watering issue would also cause yellowing, etc of the leaves before they'd fall off). They don't need a ton of fertilizer either so I doubt if that's the issue. You might try backing off a bit on the watering frequency and see if that helps. Maybe post some pictures too, maybe someone else will have some other ideas.

Trumpet vines are considered invasive in my part of the world. I love them anyway. In that we are now into the 60th day of way over 100 degrees and no rain since February, mine is drooping. I do water but it is not the same as rain. They grow wild here and come up many feet from the mother plant. Don't know what your temps have been but my vines, and everything else, is in a dormant state. Seems like this drought/heat wave will never let up. Would make you sick to see my yard.

My wisteria vine gets to drooping some, so that's how I know when to water, lol! Everything is pretty dry here too. No lawn anymore, since I don't water what is supposed to be lawn. Water costs too much here, so spend my water bill on the gardens and flower beds instead of my "lawn", although we don't really have grass anyway. But my alfalfa that grows in my "lawn" still looks good, LOL! At least if one of them has to die, the trumpet vine is easier to replace. They were both planted at the same time, last spring, and I didn't put a trellis up for them until this year, as I wanted to make sure they would make it thru the winter first. They overwintered fine, but looks like summer is getting it instead :-(

Both of these vines are hard to kill on purpose. If you are having the extreme heat that we are, they have just gone dormant. I expect they will be back when the weather moderates. Real rain would be the very best tonic. Don't give up.

Will the leaves fall off the trumpet vine if it goes dormant like that?

Mine started off very lush this summer. It is now a ghost of it's former self. No blooms. It is about 6-7 years old here in my yard. Very well established and it is getting plenty of water. The continuing days of 105-107 (now at 60 continuous days) with super low humidity and no rain has made everything pull in and go into survival mode. We have had no butterflies this year. Local expert had an article in the Dallas Morning News this week explaining how even butterflies can hold off development in extreme weather.

Oddly, the cross vine that grows over the arbor with the wisteria has a few blooms today. 95% of my flower garden, trees and shrubs are fried. Praying for those in the northeast that the hurricane does not develop as the forecasters are saying.

PS.

I usually whack on the wisteria and the trumpet vine several times a year in an attempt to keep them from taking over the earth.

Leaves do fall off of trumpet vines, a plants way of 'trimming the fat' so the rest survives, It is Indian summer weather, tho the heat hides this, and time for it to do so, it is one of the few things in the yard still blooming-and the hummers are back and apparently heading south a bit early this year-the trumpet vines are blooming good and feeding them...no yard-looks like January here in the yard, except for the few green leaves still on the living trees-I can spot several that will need to come down this winter as they've surrundered to the heat, and hopefully none of them have an eye toward cushioning their fall on my roof...

My trumpet vine just made it through it's second summer. The leaves look good, the vine is covering my trellis, and the soil is fine for everything else that I grow, but this vine refuses to flower. I'm pretty new at this vine thing...anyone have any ideas.

Give it time--they can take a few years before they bloom. Also don't fertilize a lot--too much nitrogen fertilizer can stimulate lots of green growth at the expense of blooms

Thanks. I haven't fertilized any of the vines this year. The clematis next to it has done gang busters and as I said, there's been plenty of leaf growth. It had blooms on it when I bought it at the beginning of the summer of 2010 so I know that it is really a trumpet vine. LOL. I'll try to be patient and hope that next summer will be the "break out" year.

kittriana, just saw on tv that Magnolia County is in flames. Praying for your safety.

Am on the road- came out from Wash DC thru Va into Alabama n headin for Ill the 8th, kids are on evac 4 days now, the fire is across the street apparently, wont know more til later, online go to: referenceresource.com find the state- Texas find the area - Harris then scroll down to N Harris Waller Fire and EMS and you will find updates and scanner links to update status of our area, the fires just keep happening. Everyone help suck that tropical storm toward the west, maybe we will get water!, n thanx guys, worried more abt you guys!