Trumpet vine
I have 2 trumpet vines, planted last year. This year there were only a few flowers on one and none on the other. Am I supposed to cut them back in the fall or spring?
Trumpet vine, Campsis radicans is fast growing and sometimes considered invasive in warmer climates. It spreads by underground runners and seeds.
For best blooming, give it full sun, well drained soil and low moisture and no fertilizer. If it doesn’t bloom well chances are that you are pampering it too much. Prune it in early spring to shorten and remove dead wood. To control aggressive growth cut it back to the ground and it should resprout. The orange tubular flowers which attract hummingbirds and bees are produced on current seasons growth.
All parts of this plant are poisonous and care should be taken when handling the plant as some can get a skin reaction to the foliage.
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I need to exterminate my plant called Campsis Radicans. We thought we had dug it out but now it is spreading.
I need to move my trumpet vine, it is long and viny. how and where should I plant it?
I have 3 long pods of a Trumpet vine. What do I do with them. I don’t know when to plant or how. Someone said to put them under a rock and forget them till spring. Do I take the seeds out or plant the pod seeds and all. Need help.
Not blooming
My trumpet vine is about seven years old and has never bloomed. We live in the midwest. It is as tall as a privacy fence with great foliage but no blooms not even a bud.
I’ve had my trumpet vine for three years now. I get foliage but it has never bloomed. Now the leaves seem to be getting very weak and they have tiny white spots on the underside of the leaves. What shoud I do?
Aphids
Should I spray for bugs on my trumpet vine? I have little green bugs all over it.
Plant seeds
A friend gave me the seeds to a trumpet vine, I would like to know the correct way to plant it. How long does it take to germinate?
Not blooming
I, too, have a three year old trumpet vine that has never bloomed. It gets partial sun but I have no other sunnier spot for it. Should I just give up on it? Lots of vine foliage – no blooms. BobbyJean
I have a beautiful trumpet plant. I got mildew in early spring so I cut all the leaves and branchs off. I sprouted new beautiful leaves and now is covered in mildew. How do I get rid of mildew??
We also have clay here in NV. I remedied this by adding clean sand and bags of pearlite to the soil. You can also try adding some gravel or clean straw. But the pearlite seems to work best.
I live in Northern California, Bay Area. I have 6 trumpet vines, 4 red & 2 lilac, they are planted in sandy soil near a pool (about 4 feet away) on a very strong pergola. They get about 4 hrs of direct sun a day. They are VERY slowly growing. Since I’ve been reading comments about its aggresiveness, should I be concern about the roots damaging my gunite pool? Should I get rid of them? If so, what can I plan instead under this conditions. I just want green foliage to cover my pergola all year round.
This vine is a horror — neighbor’s vines took over my side of fence and strangled three healthy pyracantha if you can imagine! This happened when elderly mother was unable to pay attention to her yard, nor did anyone else. After killing the pyracantha this scourage went for the rose bushes but I finally hacked it back and saved roses. Warning: do not ever plant this “weed” near anything else you want to save — it will wind around it and kill it — we are in So Calif. Lots of heat and drought. Neighbor loves it and wants us to cover a gate with it that attaches to our house. Thanks but no — this garbage invades pipes, walls, etc. As others have said, it’s a nightmare and should never be tolerated.
I am concerned about the negative reviews reguarding the way this plant invades the area around it. I am considering putting my new-comer into a pot because of this. Could you tell me the size of pot and any other important information reguarding this approach to planting a red trumpet, AND, will it bloom as well planted this way?
I have a trumpet vine that is right next to my vegetable garden. The runners are a night mare! They wind around everything. If I use Round Up on the runners, will it also kill the main plant? the neighbor might not be pleased.
I AM A FIRST TIME GARDENER THIS YEAR – I HAVE SEVERAL TRUMPET VINES THAT ARE GROWING IN MY BACK SUN PORCH UNTIL THE FROST TIME IS OVER – NORTHERN IN. – THEY HAVE BEEN DOING GREAT AND ARE ABOUT 7 INCHES TALL EACH. BUT NOW I HAVE SOME LITTLE HOLES IN SOME OF THE LEAVES – I AM THINKING A NIBBLING BUG – WHAT DO I DO? ALSO, I HAVE A COUPLE LILAC BUSHED STARTING THAT LOOK LIKE THEY HAVE BEEN NIBBLED. I PLAN TO MOVE ALL MY VARIOUS PLANTS FROM THE PORCH TO OUR GARDEN AROUND MAY 1ST – ALSO, WE HAVE A DOG – IF HE NIBBLES THE TRUMPET VINE WILL HE DIE?
THANKS! AMY.
WE have a trumpet vine covering a patio, and when we sit under it during the summer it emits drops of something that feels like rain sprinkling. Is this sap, or water, and is it dangerous. WE are especially fearful that it could drop in our glass of water or tea or whatever. Thank you
It’s either nectar from the flowers or moisture from transpiration of the leaves. I don’t think its dangerous.If you want to be on the safe side keep the drinks covered or away from the plant.
Propagating trumpet vine
How do I go about starting trumpet vines from another plant? Do I have to wait until it goes to seed?
My trumpet vine has recently started blooming, but is dropping flowers after a few days. Is this normal? Also I have many ants on the flowers. Can they do any damage?
Ants on trumpet vine flowers
“My trumpet vine has recently started blooming, but is dropping flowers after a few days. Is this normal? Also I have many ants on the flowers. Can they do any damage?”
Obviously, it’s too late for “Kelly” to benefit from this reply but for future readers, here’s the answer: I’m a landscape architect and have 15 years experience with Campsis radicans or Trumpet Vines. Ants on a Trumpet Vine are totally and utterly normal, identical to ants on peony flowers! There is NOTHING wrong with your plant. Actually, the ants are an extremely important part of the life cycle of the Trumpet vine and they state out there territory on each cluster of blooms and guard it fiercely! Just touching an individual flower sets them into a frenzy.
Each blossom, when it looks like an orange tube of lipstick is covered in a sweet substance. The ants eat it off, like peony blooms, and it’s ONLY because they eat the sugar coating that the blossom can emerge. The plant benefits from this because ants are the major pollinator of this plant, despite the amount of bees, wasps, and hummingbirds that you see sipping from the flowers. The Trumpet Vine has developed a symbiotic relationship with ants which carries through the entire summer; I’ve even seen the ants protecting the developed pods, well after the blossoms have fallen.
Regarding the blossom drop, that too is normal. Each and every day, I sweep up hundreds and hundreds of flowers from my 50′ long Trumpet Vine; they usually stay on the plant 2-3 days.
I hope this information helps future readers and that the ants are given a new appreciation for “Service’s Rendered”.
Aphids
Okay, after a thorough investigation, I found what appears to be dark colored aphids on the flower blooms and also the buds. How can I get rid of these? Thanks for your help.
I have a trumpet vine that is about 8″ high that i have started in a pot inside to give it a healthy start. I have noticed that the leaf tips are slightly curling up and are brown. I feel that i give the plant plenty of water. What is causing this the leaves to turn brown?
My trumpet vine is maybe 20 yrs. old, well established, this year it started to grow beautifully, now its new growth in the middle has turned brown and died. This is also happening to a younger vine. We have had bouts of hot and cool weather and more rain than usual. Is this the problem?
I have a well established (16 or 17 years old – northeast Iowa) trumpet vine in the back yard which I’ve pruned to grow up a pole. With pruning it looks great and attracts a lot of humming birds. The problem is that each year it becomes more invasive of the rest of the yard. I’ve considered digging around it and essentially creating a large in-ground bottomless “pot” of concrete to contain it. My questions are:(1) is how deep would that “pot” have to be to prevent the invasive runners? And (2) how large a diameter of a “pot” would I need to provide adequate space for the roots of the trumpet vine I want to keep? Thanks for any advice you can give.
Tom
I recently purchased a 5 trumpet vines(approx 6ft tall). I planted them in an area that gets direct sunlight. They have been in the ground for about 2 weeks and I have noticed that some of the leaves are getting dark. I am not sure what could be causing this or what it is. Any suggestions.
PLEASE HELPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have trumpet vines in backyard that are going crazy and taking over the whole yard, climbing the house, I haven’t found a way to destroy them..Is there a fairly easy way?
Thanks…..
my flowers get eaten as soon as they appear. Help!
I have a vine approx. 5-6 years old. It seems to be growing well, but the bottom half of the vine, the leaves have a whitish/brown worm-like markings on them and I have no flowers. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank You,
Debbie Scooneas
Finally, after 8-10 years my Trumpet vine bloomed. My husband argued with me for years that I had not planted a Trumpet vine because it never bloomed and other vines in neighbouring properties sprouted blooms every year. When the buds finally opened, the flowers were odd looking as if something had eaten the flowery part at the end and only left the long tube-like part of the bloom. Any suggestions as to why this has happened? Is my Trumpet vine a dud?
I have a four year old Trumpet Vine. I am moving and would like to take some cuttings. I have some runners that have rooted around the main stem. How deep do I have to dig these to assure that they will survive the winter until I can plant them in their new location. Should I put them in a pot over the winter? Thanks
Wow! I just stumbled onto this site because I was wondering about how trumpet vines were propagated, and I read all the questions and answers, and everything I wanted to know was right there! This is the best site I have found for plant info! Now I am going to find some answers about honeysuckle! Thanks for this site, it’s great!!!
My lavender trumpet vine is well established and blooms well in spring. I found a 2 inch long, 1 inch wide light green spiked pod hanging from one vine. Is this a type of seed pod? Your excellent site does not address anything of this nature. Thank you
we have a trumpet vine that is two years old starting around the fence pool. it’s growing well, blooms and has pods, but what i’m reading about the plant almost scares me about it’s spreading. should any type of fertilizer be used if it is doing well
We planted a trumpet vine in order to cover our pergola and it is off to a slow start but we are hoping for more rapid growth in the spring. We have had a lot of rain recently and the leaves are turning yellow. My question is – is the change in colour due to too much rain or is the trumpet vine a deciduous plant and the leaves will fall off?
Are trumpet plants deer proof? Will they eat just the flowers, or the leaves as well?
We planted trumpet vines last summer and they grew and bloomed. I am not sure if they wintered safely. They now have dead leaves still attached. It is now the end of April.
We live in the low mountains with desert climate. Are the vines dead or can we do something to get rid of all the dead leaves still attached? Skip
My question is similar to M. Brown’s and mine is a lavendar trumpet, have had it for about 4/5 yrs and some of the flowers are the same as she described….distorted, not opening all the way or looking like they should. The way they are opening gives the appearance of “being chewed on” but in reality they are not. We had a rather dry year here in Sac, CA so I’m not too concerned about over waters…there is leaf spot which I do get every year….I’m thinking maybe not enough water or the roots are somehow getting compacted in the soil and it’s being restricted some how, nothing obvious but something is going on with it….last year it was stunning.
I planted a new vine last year and it does not have any leaves or even any little leaf buds yet. The branches seem brittle and are easily broken off. Do I need to start over?
I have moved into a house that had a trumpet vine growing up a pole near the deck. It had beautiful orange flowers last year, it has a thick viney base and near by there were all thin vines climbing a trellace. I didn’t know if these other thin vines (with greens only) were connected or not. Either way, I took down all the dead ones. Its early spring and I am noticing absolutely no action from my vines so far, just wood shutes. Did I kill everything? And were the small near by vines related or a different plant?
Ijust received my trumpet and it was doing fine…but now something is feasting! Mine it a bush rather than vine. The holes are almost the whole leaf. Can anyone help with some idea what this might be! Isprayed it with “seven” but it didn’t have any impact… HELP
HI Suzi
Is it possible that a “critter” could be eating the leaves? Try a repellant.
HI!
Trumpet vine recently planted. Yellowing of leaves is occuring. Too much water.
Hi, I have trumpet vine starters from a friends plant. I’ve kept them in a bucket of water for almost a month now, and I need to plant them. Only place I have is an ugly old pole in the backyard with full sunlight, but there’s concrete around the pole about 2 ft. out. Can I plant the vines next to the concrete and tie the vines to the pole till it’s established? Or will tying them to the pole will damage the vine? Thanks for your help!
We have two trumpet vines between 17-18 years old. They’ve grown from the soil to up over a trellis on our deck about 15 ft. high. We don’t fertilize them or do anything but occasionally water them. Usually by late May/early June the “dead” wood has new leaves and branches everywhere, then the flowers follow by late June, very numerous and lovely. This year, one of the vines is doing what it always does; the other shows NO GROWTH of any kind–only the wood. We cannot figure this out, since they are next to each other. Is the one dead? How can we tell? There’s no change in color or anything else–just no growth at all. Please help!
Thanks!The yellow leaves are all on established leaves (the vines were each about 3 ft tall when planted)Some of the yellow are also browning. But not all the leaves are yellow, some are green. I am barely watering them, so I’m thinking maybe the soil and wood chips are retaining water?
Leap spot disease
I have several trumpet vines and one is out at our barn and is approx 8 feet tall and 12 feet wide it is beautiful and we love it, but i just noticed that it has brown spots all over its leaves and is kicking its blooms off WHAT CAN I DO !!!!!!
I have just planted a trumpet vine this early May for the first time. It was a small plant, about 2-3 inches high when I planted it, and it is green and appears healthy but is still only about 2-3 inches high a month later! Is this normal?
Thank you so much!!!! I really appreciate your help!!!!! You are awesome.
Not clilmbing on trellis
I planted some trumpet vines and provided 2 metal trellises for them to climb, but they don’t attach to them. The vines just spread over the flower bed. Do I need a different kind of support?
I have leaf and stem deformaty and death on new growth on two out of three trumpet vines. At the crotch of somw of the new leaves there are clusters of tiny mounds that seem to be related to the problem. No bugs are apparent. Some other bushes in my garden also seem to have leaf wilt and branch death. Any comments?
What are the cluster of tiny mounds? ant hills? Have you sprayed any type of herbicides in the area?
My daughters gave me a yellow trumpet vine for Mother’s day this year. It is still in the pot as I haven’t been able to decide where to put it. After reading all the above I’ve decide to plant it at the foot of a huge white pine in the back yard that gets great sun.
Will the vine hurt the tree?
The pine comes first and is very old. It has lost some of it’s limbs to ice storms (eastern PA location) and this might cover some of the scarred areas.
My trumpet vines are at least 20 years old and well established. Am I supposed to cut them back in the fall and if so how far down? Thanks
I have a beautiful trumpet vine that I am training to grow over my childrens’ old wooden playscape. It’s doing well. For the past two years I’ve noticed that the leaves on the newest growth curl inwards and have little green bumps. After awhile, the leaves turn brown and fall off. Any solutions?
Thanks.
Evil invasive Trumpet vine
For the life of me, I can’t imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to plant one of these evil things! I don’t care how beautiful the flowers are or what kind of birds they attract, the fact of the matter is, these monsters are highly invasive, taking over anything and everything in its path. And worst of all, they’re suspected to be poisonous to both pets and humans (DAH!!) Our neighbors have a couple of these things growing in their backyard about ten feet from the lot line, and the runners are taking over our lawn and choking out the beautiful (and EXPENSIVE) roses we’ve had on our side of the fence. I’ve pointed it out to them on several occasions, but they don’t seem to care. We’ve been using stuff like RoundUp to try and control the new growth on our side, but that’s also killing out our grass and other “desirable” (non-invasive) plant life.
Believe me, if I had a way of killing these things starting off with the vines popping up on our side of the fence all the way back to the main plants, I would do it without even having a second thought.
I just noticed yesterday that 2 of my trumpet vines that I have growing up an arbor are looking horrible with the flowers shriveled on the vine and coated with a white powdery looking substance as well as the leaves. I read above about the mold but I’ve never seen white mold before and I’ve never had fungus problems with plants before so I don’t know what to do to help my vines.
I came into this posting to see if I could figure out what is eating my well established trumpet vine. I have a few ideas now. I had to laugh, however, when I read that in the colder climates the vine tends not to overgrow because of winter. I live 80 km north east of Toronto and we can have some very cold spells in the winter. My trumpet vine is well established. We wrapped it the first couple of winters then stopped after that. I have to check it out every couple of days to keep it trimmed back. It did go wild one year and we had not blossoms. One of the local nurseries told us what had happened and what to day about it. Fortunately I planted it where it is not near any other plants. I use vegetation killer on the little shots and cut off the new growth that is trying to spread from the main plant. Maybe in the Artic this plant might have problems but it seems to adapt quite well around here. I am not a gardener. I plant things, give them basic care and hope they grow. If they survive me then they have to be strong.
THE MOST EVIL THING I HAVE EVER PLANTED! What was I thinking???
I have been trying to get rid of my trumpet vine for years, I cut it down to the ground, but if I don’t go out every few days to pull out suckers that are all over the yard, my entire yard and house would be covered with the wretched thing. It is the worst gardening mistake I have ever made.
I think it should be illegal, and that anyone who has one should dig it out while it is still young, while you can.
I live in Massachusetts, where it freezes and snows, and the vine CANNOT be controlled.
The question I have about the trumpet plant is how cold can it get before the roots will freeze? I live in the eastern part of North Carolina and was wondering if I can put my trumpet plant into the ground instead of having it in the pot or will it freeze during the winter. The average winter can get down to about the freezing point of 32 degrees and at times fost does form on the ground. Should I keep my plant in the pot or can I put it into the gound and it will continue to come back just like a perennial would? Is there anyone who can give me the correct answer to my question? Your respose would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joanie
Ants on trumpet vine
Our trumpet vine is finally blooming, but it is being attacked by ants. Will they cause the plant any harm, and if so, do you have any suggestions for getting rid of them? Thank you, I have found this web-site to be very helpful.
I have two cross-vines which have both developed small yellow spots on the leaves which turn brown. One was recently planted in full sun. The other is still in its pot on my shaded porch waiting for a friend coming from out of state to get it. Both are putting on new growth, but as the leaves mature, they get the spots. As I plan to make tea from the leaves, this is a problem. Is it normal? Or a fungus that needs treating?
I have a trumpet vine for about five years. i noticed that something is eating it very fast and there are some small drops(poops) next to the planter. I sparyed it immediately with insecticidal soap from schults. let me know what should i do?
we are thinking of planting trumpet vines over a rock garden that goes downhill. The rocks are very large and the soil is sandy. We have a wooden barrier up so the hillside will not fall—-is it a good idea to plant trumpet vines since they seem to take over everything? Is something else better?
I have what I thought was a trumpet vine, however, it isn’t vining at all. It is growing straight up and is about 7 feet tall right now. It has never not bloomed except that in the spring it had dome little tiny white and pink sort of flowers way down close to the ground on a couple of branches. Is this really a trmpet vine?? Even though that is what the tag said I’m not sure anymore. Any ideas what this could be?
I started my trumpet vines from seed and planted outside along a river bank next to a wire fence with 80% sun during the day. The plants are now 3 years old and the growth seems to be stunted ,there only about 14 inches tall and will not spread. Whats wrong ??
This is the third summer we’ve lived in our house. The first summer the big trumpet vine in the backyard bloomed gloriously but last year and this year the buds fall off before it ever blooms. The plant itself looks very healthy. Some of the buds are blackened and shriveled; I opened up one and found it to be full of tiny white worms.
How can I treat the plant so it blooms again next season?
driving around i have seen trumpet vines that look like trees how are they doing this?
Trumpet vine tree standard
I get that it will get bigger but how long will it take. does it need to have a pole to go up? and once it gets that big what and how do they keep the vine up and looking like a tree?
My trumpet vine is at the end of my pool …I have been noticing bug droppings in my pool for several days …I sprayed for insects on the vine and this AM I found a large green caterpillar (like a tomato worm) in the bottom of my pool …these must be the culprits …how do i get rid of them??
Trumpet Vine: Dropped ALL it’s leaves in one day. It was doing great blooming/vining … then – poof! I shook the branches & ALL the leaves & flowers… fell off!
It looked fine – there were still flowers etc., leaves were still green. WHAT HAPPENED? Is it dead? Can I save it? Took years to ‘finally’ bloom!
I have trumpet vines growing on the top portion of an old windmill tower. They are 10 or 12 years old and probably 30 feet tall. Last year they were beautiful and produced many flowers and pods. This year they started their growing season normally, then suddenly the flowers dropped too quickly, no pods have been produced, and large areas of leaves have turned brown and dropped. Pruning or spraying is not an option for me because of the height.
OK, now you’ve scared me. I was going to plant my split leaf philodendron fairly close to the trumpet plant (it’s not a vine or tree, more like a bush. I have noticed suckers although I wasn’t sure what they were. I don’t want to spray vegetation killer. Can I keep it controlled by pulling suckers? Can it live relatively happily with my split leaf philodendron?
Leaf drop
My trumpet vine is losing its leaves rapidly. They turn brown and drop off the vine. Some of the leaves have yellow spots. Is this from too much water?
Chemical drift
Concerning my trumpet vine and the falling leaves from my September 15 note–I did spray round-up on the brome and dandelions on the ground under the trumpet vine, but nothing on it’s leaves or roots. Would that harm it? The other thing that happened is the airplane spraying of a neighbor’s field–the plane approached over my house and yard, but I thought they were spraying for aphids. Could either of things affected my vine? Will it come back next spring?
Pruning trumpet vine
How and when do I cut back my trumpet vines for the winter?