Trumpet Creeper - 'Campsis radicans'Trumpet Creeper was introduced to America in 1640. Trumpet Creeper is a deciduous vine that is known for its beautiful flowers. Hummingbirds just love to draw nectar from the brightly colored flowers. Trumpet Creeper grows well in sun and shade, and if you cannot grow this plant, you should give up gardening. This vine does well in poor soil and has corolla rich orange and scarlet, trumpet-shaped flowers. Trumpet Creeper flowers from June to September. With a habit that most often chokes out competing plants and weeds, Trumpet Creeper is excellent in preventing soil erosion. It is also commonly used as a decorative addition for buildings. This means that it is most often used to grow on sections of buildings, walls, and fences for its aesthetic beauty.
||Trumpet Creeper, Common Trumpet Creeper, Trumpet Vine, Hummingbird Vine, and Cow-Itch|
||Crimson Trumpet, Flava, Praecox|
||Partial to Full Sun|
||Leaves are opposite, pinnately compound, and 6 to 15" long. Leaflets are .75-4" long, .25-2" wide, and angularly toothed. Leaves are lustrous dark green changing to yellow-green in fall and not effective.|
||30 to 40' high, actually will scramble and climb over everything in its path|
||Zone 4 to 9. For an idea of your plant zone please visit the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.|
||Rampant, deciduous, clinging (rootlike holdfasts), strangling vine; at its best on fenceposts for when it reaches the top of the post it forms an immense whorl of stems; makes the post appear as if it is about to fly; needs frequent pruning to control.|
||Fast; keep your legs moving when in the vicinity of this plant.|
||Perfect, corolla rich orange and scarlet, trumpet-shaped, 2.5-3" long, 1.5" wide at mouth with triangular teeth. Borne 4 to 12 together in terminal cymes from June to September.|
|Diseases & Insects:
||Blight, leaf spots, powdery mildew, plant hoppers, scale and whitefly occur but are not serious enough to warrant controls.|
||Good for screening, covering rock piles, have seen it used tastefully over trellises and lath structures; good pruning is a necessity to keep it in bounds.|
||Grows in any soil.|
||Prune heavily in spring and watch carefully to keep in bounds.|
||Fertilization is likely unnecessary.
||Dig a hole about 8 to 12 inches in diameter, with a depth no deeper than the original soil line on the stem. Break up the soil to the finest consistency possible. Place plant in hole and fill, compacting the fill dirt. Water the plant heavily to seal soil around the roots and remove air pockets. Plant one plant for ever 2 linear feet. The larger the plant the faster the area will fill in.