September Perennial of the Month-Trumpet Creeper

Do you know that scene in horror movies where the crazy vines grab the main character’s ankles and drag him, kicking and screaming, out of sight? I’m convinced those vines were based on trumpet creeper vines, Campsis radicans, and every character they drag off to some unknown painful death is a gardener.

Not so much a perennial as a woody vine, trumpet creeper vine is native, sure. That’s good. It has showy, late-season, bright orange flowers. That’s also good. It tolerates poor soil, sun, or shade and is drought tolerant … all good. Hummingbirds supposedly love it, and that’s good, too, BUT … this vine is SCARY. On many levels. Scary to the point that if it weren’t a native, I would have titled this another “Anti” plant of the month.

Size does matter in Mother Nature, and the extreme height and circumference of a mature trumpet creeper vine combined with the PROLIFIC seedlings that refuse to be pulled by hand within a thirty-foot radius of the plant, combined with its ability to sucker and form dense horror-movie-worthy colonies are what makes me hesitate to ever recommend it to clients.

And then there are the other issue that horror movies don’t even address … the ants.

Trumpet creepers have specialized organs called extrafloral nectaries that secrete sugary nectar, which ants LOVE, and once they find it, tell all their friends and family who come to the party. Symbiotic relationships like this are one of Mother Nature’s most fascinating features. Still, I’ve had clients who have freaked out over the ants enough to call an exterminator when they could have just removed the vine from their patio arbor and saved a ton of money and heartache. RESEARCH can be something as simple as a quick Google search while standing in line at the garden center. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy trip to the library using the Dewey decimal system anymore!

So if you desire a native flowering vine that grows 40+ feet high, tolerates full sun to part shade, drought, extreme temperature swings, poor soils, attracts hummers AND ants, yet resists constraints of any kind. This is your vine.

What I like about this plant:

-It’s a native.

-Showy flowers.

-Quick to cover a trellis, pergolas, entire houses, or mature trees.

-Deer tolerant.

What’s not so great:

-The extreme size of the vigorous stems (trunks?) and height of the vines as they mature. There are a few cultivars available that claim to be not as aggressive. Good luck and let me know your experience with them.

-The prolific reseeding and suckering.

-The very cool symbiotic relationship with ants can be a turn-off for most homeowners- do not let it climb near your house.

-Very much like wisteria where a heavy-duty support structure is required and even then will most likely be destroyed in the end. Not for your cute decorative garden arbors which will be swallowed and out of site within a year or two.

-EXTREMELY high maintenance to keep size in check, or to keep seedlings and suckers at bay.

Comments or questions? Email Garden-Lou at gardenloustl@gmail.com

Words and photos by Jo Batzer

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