What are the largest sizes for Trumpet Vine available from mail order nurseries? Which nurseries that have high quality plants currently sell it? Ideally I want larger plants that will really take off in Spring.

I realize that this is an invasive plant and needs to have its growth managed. But I need a fast growing plant for a seating area with a trellis behind the seating, and I do not have time to wait five years for something to grow out before it covers the trellis and starts to flower. Trumpet Vine has such prolific flowering that it would really showcase this important area in the garden.

I don't know about where to buy any, I'm still battling getting rid of it. But consider what kind of trellis you plan on this attaching to. If you're talking about a trellis made of wooden slats, that will be destroyed pretty quickly by trumpet vines, they've been known to bring down chain link fences.

If you need something growing that fast, did you consider morning glories? There are many flowers to choose from. Other good fast vines are moonflowers, Spanish Flag, Cardinal Climbers, Cypress Vine. All of those are annuals for me and grow incredibly fast each summer. Clematis is good, Wisteria as well although that probably would need more work to keep it from collapsing any support.

Murky said: I don't know about where to buy any, I'm still battling getting rid of it. But consider what kind of trellis you plan on this attaching to. If you're talking about a trellis made of wooden slats, that will be destroyed pretty quickly by trumpet vines, they've been known to bring down chain link fences.

If you need something growing that fast, did you consider morning glories? There are many flowers to choose from. Other good fast vines are moonflowers, Spanish Flag, Cardinal Climbers, Cypress Vine. All of those are annuals for me and grow incredibly fast each summer. Clematis is good, Wisteria as well although that probably would need more work to keep it from collapsing any support.

I want an evergreen vine in zone 9b. This is behind a seating area in a year round garden and it would be horrible to have a dead vine back there and only get interest on the trellis in Summer.

The trellis will be a very heavy duty white PVC.

I love Clematis but I am still learning which ones are evergreen in zone 9b. They are temperamental to get started and many I plant in fall die and do not come back.

Depending on the width and height of the area ?
Maybe try climbing roses or ramblers.
Lady banks is an easy grow bright yellow fast growing no thorns. Easy to maintain and shape/trim.
Just a thought….





Alternate with Lonicera honeysuckle


or Check Out the Site Below. Sometime seeing a vine is nice for visuals to make decisions. Plants can always be moved and changed to match expectations anytime. Good Luck.👍

Vine list for California gardens.
https://www.californiagardens....

Annual and Perennial Flowering Plants | Sun Valley, CA
https://www.nicks-nursery.com/...

https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/...

OR: Check with nearest nursery some will order plants for customers.

It grows so fast it's constant trimming for my garden.

Trumpet vine is not evergreen in my area - 9a, but most roses are.

What about a tecoma? My experience with that is potted, of course. I have seen them in the ground in Idaho, and they were a nice manageable size there. I believe it is a relative of trumpet vine. Regular trumpet vine is a thug. If you decide to go ahead and try it, you might want to plant it inside some sort of barrier, like they do with running bamboo.

According to the database, regular trumpet vine is not evergreen, but tecoma is. However, the database also classifies tecoma as a shrub. I would say that the old growth is shrub-like, but the new growth is more vine-like.

@pone31 , in answer to your question, you can get a two year bare root plant for a reasonable price from Jung's in Wisconsin: https://www.jungseed.com/produ...
Again, I'd encourage you to think long and hard before you plant one. Is your arbor 40 feet tall? This plant isn't happy unless it can go vertical. It was fine on the farm as long as it had a windmill to climb. Once that came down, it tried to take over the universe. And it didn't bother to bloom much while putting out all the vegetative growth.

@bumplbea has posted a lot of beautiful suggestions. She knows her stuff, and you couldn't go wrong with any of her recommendations.

Monrovia carries Campsis crosses and similar trumpet vines that aren't C. radicans that might not be as aggressive. Their products are carried in most nurseries plus I think you can order online from them. Check out their site
https://www.monrovia.com/searc...

bumplbea said: Depending on the width and height of the area ?
Maybe try climbing roses or ramblers.
Lady banks is an easy grow bright yellow fast growing no thorns. Easy to maintain and shape/trim.
Just a thought….

Climbing roses would look great in this area and I have some waiting for a home. But the problem is there is not enough spacing between an existing hedge and the stone bench seating. If I put in climbing roses they would constantly be attacking the seating area.

hawkeye_daddy said: What about a tecoma? My experience with that is potted, of course. I have seen them in the ground in Idaho, and they were a nice manageable size there. I believe it is a relative of trumpet vine. Regular trumpet vine is a thug. If you decide to go ahead and try it, you might want to plant it inside some sort of barrier, like they do with running bamboo.

According to the database, regular trumpet vine is not evergreen, but tecoma is. However, the database also classifies tecoma as a shrub. I would say that the old growth is shrub-like, but the new growth is more vine-like.

Tecoma would have made a great hedge plant, if I were starting over. I can't see it acting as a vine, climbing a formal trellis.

Picture please to see the space…?

NMoasis said: Monrovia carries Campsis crosses and similar trumpet vines that aren't C. radicans that might not be as aggressive. Their products are carried in most nurseries plus I think you can order online from them. Check out their site
https://www.monrovia.com/searc...

What do others think about Macfadyena unguis-cati aka Yellow Trumpet Vine. It looks similarly aggressive to Campsis radicans, but maybe just a bit more manageable.
https://www.monrovia.com/yello...

bumplbea said: Picture please to see the space…?

I tried to highlight in a red rectangle the area in question. It's about 30 feet wide, and I might be able to get the trellis up to 15 feet high. The two trellises in there now are not set in place and are just to show the left edge of the area. I have the option to line up three to five of these trellises side-by-side, or alternately I can get one enormous and wide trellis.

The hedge is a Photinia, which I hate. It's an unhealthy plant in this area and I should never have used it. I have holes in the hedge, which I am now remediating by growing Pittosporum underneath the Photinia, and over time I will get better density.

The stone bench has not been built yet, but it will line the stone path right where this trellis and vine will go.

I have never tried to domesticate a trumpet vine, but I don't see why it can't be done with due diligence.

Thank you for posting a pic of your beautiful well designed garden.

Trumpet vine would work in that area…there are pink, yellow and orange flowers . Have you asked a nursery if they can get them ? If not maybe think about bouganvillia are evergreen in your zone.

My favorite vine if trumpets are not available after studying your garden pic are the evergreen climbing hydrangea-seemannii and Hydrangea-serratifolia. They are beautiful white full flowers, add a lighter easy flow. They are easy care, will add a soft background to accent and brighten up that section of dark foliage.

porkpal said: I have never tried to domesticate a trumpet vine, but I don't see why it can't be done with due diligence.

I have three trumpet vines along an unsightly chain link fence that I prune hard yearly. They grow furiously every summer. My only difficulty is encouraging lower leaf growth on the lower bare trunk(s) where there are no laterals—where I want thicker coverage. but the upper half gets huge between May and August. I suspect early training pruning might have been the key to bushier growth, which didn't happen.

I have two varieties: the yellow is C. radicans 'Flava' and I think the orange is Campsis x tagliabuana 'Madame Galen', which sends up occasional runners. Haven't seen any from 'Flava." Word of caution, especially because you want to place them around a bench: they are insect/pollinator magnets. They are constantly abuzz with numerous species of bees and wasps, plus a healthy populations of spiders and birds.

bumplbea said: Thank you for posting a pic of your beautiful well designed garden.

Trumpet vine would work in that area…there are pink, yellow and orange flowers . Have you asked a nursery if they can get them ? If not maybe think about bouganvillia are evergreen in your zone.

My favorite vine if trumpets are not available after studying your garden pic are the evergreen climbing hydrangea-seemannii and Hydrangea-serratifolia. They are beautiful white full flowers, add a lighter easy flow. They are easy care, will add a soft background to accent and brighten up that section of dark foliage.

I have a Climbing Hydrangea - Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris - growing up a dying tree, but that was a disappointment so far because it is deciduous and looks dead during Winter. I like your choice Hydrangea seemannii because it is evergreen, and I wish I had gone with that originally. The main problem with the area I photographed is it is all too much the same shade of green, and H seemannii would be yet more of the same green shade. I was hoping to use an evergreen trumpet vine to get a lot of color into that area and break up the monotony.

NMoasis said: I have three trumpet vines along an unsightly chain link fence that I prune hard yearly. They grow furiously every summer. My only difficulty is encouraging lower leaf growth on the lower bare trunk(s) where there are no laterals—where I want thicker coverage. but the upper half gets huge between May and August. I suspect early training pruning might have been the key to bushier growth, which didn't happen.

I have two varieties: the yellow is C. radicans 'Flava' and I think the orange is Campsis x tagliabuana 'Madame Galen', which sends up occasional runners. Haven't seen any from 'Flava." Word of caution, especially because you want to place them around a bench: they are insect/pollinator magnets. They are constantly abuzz with numerous species of bees and wasps, plus a healthy populations of spiders and birds.

Could you post some photos of each of those?

I did a major photo purge a while back and I guess I decided I didn't need so many pix of the trumpets. Mostly I kept tight closeups of birds and bees, but here are a few that might give you an idea. Showing month/date so you can see when they bloom, but these are from all different years.

In my climate they are NOT evergreen. They start leafing early May, go dormant with fall freezes.


Top right, along the top of a chain link fence. July 3. Orange is buried between the two yellows


Still in full bloom Aug 4, will start scaling back late Aug, early September.


The yellow 'Flava' are more tubular than the orange 'Madame Galen', below. Late July


June 20

NMoasis said: I did a major photo purge a while back and I guess I decided I didn't need so many pix of the trumpets. Mostly I kept tight closeups of birds and bees, but here are a few that might give you an idea. Showing month/date so you can see when they bloom, but these are from all different years.

In my climate they are NOT evergreen. They start leafing early May, go dormant with fall freezes.


Top right, along the top of a chain link fence. July 3. Orange is buried between the two yellows


Still in full bloom Aug 4, will start scaling back late Aug, early September.


The yellow 'Flava' are more tubular than the orange 'Madame Galen', below. Late July


June 20

Great pics of trumpet vine.
Did you find that after a few years the vines became thick and woody across the entire section. The blooms will only form on new vine growth at the ends of the vines. And became bushier and bushier just to grow new vines to have flowers. At the end of the day the thick woody sections of the vines become unsightly . The flowers only bloom in summers.


Well…. If reading complaint from original question on to much green leaf plant material in the section shown pic then why not try variegated vines. Variegated vine would lighten up the area and bloom in summers.

Variegated Clerodendrum vine or variegated Jasmine , variegated bougainvillea, variegated silver vine - lime color heart shaped lives with white tips
Each attract hummingbirds when in bloom.

It may take for spring to arrive and check with your local nurseries for a match .