Plant of the Week
Trumpet Creeper, Trumpet Vine
Latin: Campsis radicans
I’m afraid of vines. I like the idea of vines in the garden, the beauty of
vines and the utility of vines, but they scare me. Whenever I hear a gardener
ask how to care for wisteria, I shutter in apprehension of things to come, when
the rampant vine will crawl through the window and strangle the hapless
homeowners as they sleep.
This fear of vines probably dates to my childhood, when a trumpet creeper grew
by my bedroom window. Not only did I have to worry about spooks under the bed, I
had to keep a nervous eye turned to the windowsill.
Trumpet creeper is a native American vine that, for all its beauty, is not often
found in gardens. It blooms in early summer on current season growth and
produces clusters of funnel-shaped orange flowers, three inches long with the
five petal lobes out-turned at the ends of finger-sized tubes. The flowers are
followed by a six-inch elongated bean-like capsule, readily identifying them as
members of the Bignoniaceae family. The leaves are compound with nine to 11
leaflets.
Plants climb by attaching themselves to structures by means of aerial roots, and
also by twining around each other and whatever it is growing on.
Though the common flower color is orange, a wide array of flower colors occur
naturally.
Yellow and red forms are fairly common and are available from nurseries offering
this species. One of the most beautiful forms is called ‘Apricot,’ with its
subtle hues of orange and yellow commingled.
A selection of the Chinese species, C. grandiflora, called ‘Morning Calm,’ has
the same color as ‘Apricot,’ but the Asian species has larger flowers and it
doesn’t grow as fast as our native species. Dr. Mike Dirr at the University of
Georgia has done breeding work with this and the Asian species and will probably
be releasing some large-flowered form in the near future.
The place for trumpet creeper in the landscape is covering something ugly. Chain
link fences come quickly to mind, but it could just as easily be used to cover
rock piles and ugly retaining walls.
Hummingbirds favor this flower when it blooms. Nurseries advertising in the
Sunday supplement section of the newspaper often offer this plant as the
"hummingbird vine," obscuring the fact that it is a common native vine
throughout the southeastern states.
Trumpet creeper is tough and vigorous. It requires full sun to flower well, but
otherwise is free-flowering even while relatively young. It has tremendous
drought tolerance, probably because of its ability to root so deeply into the
soil. I’ve heard stories that when the drainage ditches were dug in the Arkansas
Delta, trumpet creeper roots were found growing as deep as 20 feet.
While trumpet creeper is a vigorous grower, it is a piker when compared to
wisteria. So, if you need a vine but are afraid of wisteria, consider this
native plant the next time something ugly needs hidden.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
June 30, 2000
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