Trumpet Creeper

Size, growth and what to expect

Trumpet creeper grows fast, nearly three feet a year in our growth estimator. It climbs 30 to 40 feet when given support, and one vine spreads 5 to 10 feet wide. Its leaves, up to 15 inches long with 7 to 11 toothed leaflets, turn a dull yellow in fall.

Clusters of orange to red trumpets, up to 3 inches long, open from June into September. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are their main pollinators, and long-tongued bees visit too. Bean-like pods 3 to 6 inches long ripen from September into November and split on the vine to free winged seeds on the wind. Its leaves feed the caterpillars of the plebeian sphinx moth.

It grows wild from New Jersey and Ohio south to Florida and west to South Dakota and Texas, in moist woods, thickets, fencerows and old fields. Vines from gardens have also gone wild in New England, Michigan, Iowa and Colorado.

How to grow Trumpet Creeper

Trumpet creeper flowers best in full sun and grows in part shade, where its leaves do well but it blooms less. Any soil that drains suits it, from sand to clay and from acid to limy, and it does best in lean to average ground. Once rooted it rides out heat and drought, and it takes occasional wet spells. Its aerial rootlets can damage wood siding, shingles and mortar, and a mature vine is heavy. Train it on a sturdy support of its own, never on a house, a wooden fence or a living tree it could smother. Set its support 10 feet from a wall, and set plants 3 feet apart along it. Plant it near concrete or a lawn you mow, since mowing keeps the suckers down. It burns readily, so where wildfire is a risk keep it out of the planting zone next to a house. It climbs utility poles, so keep it off them and at least 15 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Tie the first shoots to the support, and pinch and prune them to train the vine until its rootlets take hold. Gather the pods when they turn grayish brown in fall, before they split, and shake out the winged seed. Sow it outdoors in fall. For a spring sowing, hold the seed damp in the refrigerator for 60 days first. Softwood cuttings taken in summer root easily too.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. It blooms on new wood, so prune it hard in late winter or early spring, back to a few buds, without losing that summer's flowers. Thin the vine through the growing season, and pull or mow down the suckers that rise from its roots. Deer and rabbits eat the leaves, though the vine is moderately resistant to deer.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, but a vine seldom sets pods with its own pollen, so plant two seedlings if you want pods. Leafhoppers, leaf spots and powdery mildew are minor troubles. It spreads by root suckers and seed into thickets that can choke out nearby plants, and it has escaped from gardens far beyond its range. Touching the leaves or flowers reddens and itches the skin of some people, and the plant is mildly toxic if eaten.