Hi, Rudy Don't mean to be rude at all, Rude Rudy, but I am in MI, and I have spent the last few years [and a hard sweaty batch of hours just this afternoon, yet again] trying to find some way of **killing** this thing, or even significantly discouraging it. I have put a lot of sweat and blisters into the project over several years, and I am making progress, but still feel like I am losing. I suspect that this may not be same variety, and that certainly the growing conditions where you are are not the same as where I am. But for those in my upper midwest region, I would like to discourage takers on your kind offer, or any plant that is labelled as 'Trumpet Vine/Creeper'. At least make sure you have a calmer cultivated variety, and check with others in your area about that cultivar. Apparently, the native type **really likes it** in our particular environment here. Trumpet Vine/Creeper = a bad planting idea! ........... unless you are in a hurry to cover the barn falling apart in the backlot, and there are no plantings for about a hundred feet in front of it that you care about, and that everything around that is to be mowed on a regular basis........ Rudy said: I suppose that breaking them off like that will not kill them. And I say: At least for the native form in the upper midwest, beware of leaving four inch long root segments that are anything close to a quarter-inch thick. It all begins again.......... Re broken roots and viability... I suspect there will be no problem. They should do just fine >>>> Sorry, Rudy. I am a bit frustrated... Linda

Thanks! I decided to dig out a 5' square section in the middle of my backyard and sink a 4" x 4" wooden post in the ground with concrete. I am going to move my Trumpet Creeper to that area and box it in with a wood border and mulch to make it more of a contained plant area just for the TC. After sinking the post in the hole, I still have about 6 1/2 feet above ground to grow this vine. I was told by the nursery that it should bloom next year. We'll see. It's a "Flamenco" variety. Years ago, I saw this vine intertwined to make a single medium-sized trunk over years of growth in a contained area. It looked more like a twisting tree trunk with a draping canopy of flowers and fern-like leaves. It was amazing! I don't know how the owner did that. Perhaps using a post that eventually deteriorated?! I'm hoping so! I have seen this vine growing up the side of a tree and it develops thick stalks and branches that seem to literally attach and grow into the side of the tree. I don't know if it would eventually kill the tree or not. Which is another reason I decided to grow it on a post instead. Someone mentioned that it may bloom when the branches hang down. They may have a good point. The only time I've ever seen blooms on a TC is when the ends of the vine were draped and hanging down. The flowers grow on at the end of the new growth. If I only grow it up 6 1/2 ft., then perhaps it WILL bloom sooner. It will probably be hanging over this year after I transplant it to the post. It is taking off in the area it is currently in, which is why I am digging it up and moving it this week. I really love the flowers and the leaves on this vine. It is really a beautiful plant. I know alot of folks feel it's invasive. But I agree that it may just need to be watched and pruned to keep it in bounds. And if it helps to bring the hummers to my yard, I'll be delighted!

I've pruned in the past at a multistory Seattle mansion that had one of these plastered against the front of it (along with a massive wisteria that had been grown up over the top of an atrium). Not being willing to wobble at the top of the firemen's ladders being kept on the site for the purpose I usually ended up holding the bottom one as still as I could while another party got the vine off of the gutter and roof. I was more impressed by the sheets of piano wire the wisteria was sending across the surface of the narrow foundation bed occupied by both. You read about nightmare accounts of such plants in eastern North America, where it really does rain all the time unlike here where it is supposed to be so wet. We don't have the same problems with the same plants due to our summer drought. (We do have rampant growths of ivy, blackberry and Clematis vitalba on local public and private lands).

I've know people who cut down the plants and dug the roots up every year for 10 years or more...about the time they finally thought they had found every last one, new plants would pop up 30' feet away. Wisteria can do the same sort of thing. Much depends on what sort of soil you have.It is a lot easier to dig it out of sandy loam than some other soils. It also depends on the trumpet creeper. It is easier to dig out 'Madam Galens', for example, than to dig out the native trumpet creeper. When we planted it, I made sure I bought and planted 'Madam Galens' and 'Flava'. Digging and tilling can work if you like to dig and till repeatedly, but often doesn't work in compacted clay or caliche clay soils because you cannot get dig deeply enough to reach all the roots. Or, if you are not physically able to dig and rototill that much, then digging isn't a practical solution...like it isn't for people with bad backs. I dug out lots of stuff when I was younger that I just don't think I'd spend time digging out today. This likely explains why I have wild blackberries and wild grapes growing in the veggie garden where I did not plant them and don't especially want them. Susan, A jackhammer? lol lol lol That might scare away the kitties, hummingbirds and butterflies, and the neighbors likely wouldn't love it either. I haven't tried 20% horticultural vinegar on Trumpet Creeper and wonder if it might work. I think the most effective herbicide would be Tordon or something else labeled as a brush killer. The chemicals in brush killers are stronger than the standard homeowner type herbicides. We used some of the standard herbicides in a futile attempt to kill greenbrier and poison ivy when we bought this land in the 1990s. It was a total waste of time and effort. The poison ivy and greenbrier are still with us to this date, though I am pretty successful at keeping about 90% of the poison ivy out of the fenced veggie garden. It always lurks nearby in the adjacent woodland and attempts to creep into the garden in summer when it is so hot that I just venture into the garden to harvest and then run back to the air-conditioned house. I got the poison ivy out of the garden by digging it out every year, often multiple times per year. Luckily, the poison ivy is at the sandy end of the garden. If it was at the clay end, it would be there still. Dawn