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Trumpet Vine

The Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans) is also known as Trumpet Creeper, Hellvine, Devils Shoestring, or Hummingbird Vine.  It is also sometimes called Cow Itch Vine because the leaves can cause a rash in some animal like cows. Trumpet Vine is native to the eastern United States.
Trumpet Vine is a very vigorous woody vine grown for its colorful trumpet-shaped flowers.
Trumpet Vines are available with Red Flowers,

 
Orange Flowers,
 

and Yellow Flowers.
 

These flowers attract pollinators like Hummingbirds and Bumblebees. Trumpet Vine produces large seed pods. As these mature, they dry and split releasing thin, brown, papery seeds.

It is often used to cover arbors, walls, telephone poles, and fences.


Left on its own it will cover telephone poles or trees.


An established Trumpet Vine can easily grow 10’-20’ each season. It climbs like English Ivy using aerial rootlets which can take hold of most surfaces like stucco, wood, and brick walls. These rootlets can sometimes damage the structures they climb like the stucco surfaces of homes or wooden arbors.
 
The leaves of the Trumpet Vine are actually a group of leaflets from 1” to 3” long with serrated margins (photo).


Trumpet Vine should be pruned back annually to control its size and surface coverage due to its extreme vigor. It produces a thick growth good for hedges or summer visual barriers (photo).


It will also occasionally send up suckers some distance from the original planting. Suckers should be dug up unless you desire greater coverage. Trumpet Vine does well on low to regular water once established. It is hardy to USDA Zone 1.

To view a slide show of Trumpet Vine Click on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Alxs7Zh4To&feature=plcp

Contact the nursery for more information and pricing.

Photos & Narrative By:
Stephen Sain
Staff Plant Physiologist

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