Garden Alphabet: Campsis radicans

Campsis radicans

Another lovely flowering vine — this one from my own garden. This camps is vine has arrived each year like clockwork since we moved in 18 years ago. It is deciduous, leaving only woody stems when it is dormant. It is getting more water this year, and seems more active than usual including sprouting several seed pods, which I can’t say I have seen before.

One bad note on this vine is that it has a bad habit of reaching through the nearby wooden fence and prying board off of it as it reaches for the light. It is probably best grown against something more robust like concrete block.

Follow DouglasWelch in Instagram

Campsis radicans (trumpet vine^[1] or trumpet creeper,^[1] also known in North America as cow itch vine^{[citation needed]} or hummingbird vine^{[citation needed]}), is aspecies of flowering plant of the family Bignoniaceae, native to the southeastern United States. Growing to 10 m (33 ft), it is a vigorous, deciduous woody vine, notable for its showy trumpet-shaped flowers. It inhabits woodlands and riverbanks, and is also a popular garden subject.

The leaves are opposite, ovate, pinnate, 3–10 cm long, and emerald green when new, maturing into a dark green. The flowers come in terminal cymes of 4–12, orange to red in color with a yellowish throat, and generally appear after several months of warm weather. — Wikipedia

More information on Helianthus (sunflower):