Pyrostegia Species, Flame Vine, Golden Shower, Orange Trumpet Creeper

Spectacular floral display lasting for months---this is one of the showiest of flowering climbers.

This is a big, heavy, f...Read Moreast-growing vine, but in Florida it has never been observed to set seed. It can climb and smother tall trees, and its weight can damage structures it climbs on, but its increase is vegetative only. If allowed to lie on the ground, the stems can root at the nodes. In Florida, this is not a serious threat to natural areas, and here it is not invasive in the way ecologists use the term. According to the USDA, it is not a noxious weed in any US state.

This plant climbs by tendrils, not by twining. Unmanaged plants tend to bloom only at the top, but you can have flowers up and down the whole height of the plant by regularly cutting back a fraction of the stems close to the ground.

The flowers are usually orange (not gold), but on some (rare) plants the flowers are yellow, and on others, red.

The principal bloom season is the dry/cool season, but in favorable climates it can bloom year-round. In Florida, its main season is fall-winter, but I've seen spectacular displays in late March, too.

When I was a kid we had this growing on our fence. When it bloomed, the fence along our entire property was ORANGE! So many people would ...Read Morestop and knock on our door and ask for cuttings. We would always tell them to go ahead! Take all you want!!

It was very low maintenance. The only problem we ever had with it was our dog used to use it as a "ladder" to get over the fence. It also got so heavy that the fence would cave under it weight... so we would have to cut it back. It didn't spread like crazy all over the neighborhood or totally take over like some other vines but, it did attract humming birds, bumble bees, butterflies, etc.

I don't see it very often but, when I see those pretty orange flowers it always makes me smile... because I instantly have some fond childhood memories.

I thought you would like to know that this plant grows well in Cyprus although maybe not quite as fast as I have not found it invasive at...Read More all. The winter temperatures can go down to 2-3 deg. centigrade at night but more usually 9 deg. (Jan to March) Day time temperatures average about 15 deg. I mention this because I have seen a hardiness map which says the plant likes temps. above 20 deg. cent. I have it as an arch over the gate and it has been in full bloom since November and is just dying now. It's a beautiful sight and attracts many comments. I first saw it growing on the wild on the roadsides in Mauritius and searched for on to grow in Cyprus as I did not think it would like my other garden in London!

Wow, what a mistake I made. I bought this vine from a local nursery, because I thought it would be easy to train without its becoming in...Read Morevaisive. I was even proud of myself because I thought I'd found something that would give me trumpet vine colors without the invasive qualities. Not only is this vine not native to my region, its already causing problems here. Today I plan to rip it out and "round-up" the roots. Before I looked up the vine's invasive qualities, my only negative was that the blossoms rot on the vine rather than falling to the ground, so I had to pluck spent blossoms often to keep the vine attractive. Now I know better. Where I live, I see a lot of vines that quickly grow out of control, so I appreciate any feedback about colorful less aggressive vines.