Thanks!

Waki922-

I think you're exactly right. I haven't seen any flowers yet. From my limited reading, it sounds like this is going to be tough to get rid of!

it can be your generous offering to the hummingbirds : )

It won't be "killing" trees directly. What vines can do is eventually shade out the plant (tree) they're climbing on. They don't "strangle" trees.

+oM

Thanks, +oM. As you perhaps can tell, I'm new to this gardening thing! I have a few myrtle trees in the backyard, and one of them has barely survived. I thought that it was from the trumpet taking nutrients from tree, but I guess it was just from shading it out.

Tim

Yes, more than likely, if they were in fact growing up and over the crapes. There is the outside chance of a mineral nutrient deficiency via plants competing with one another, but that's an over-hyped relationship. In fact-if you will permit me to go way off topic-studies have shown that big mama trees in the forest actually shunt some of their sap flow to suppressed babies (of the same species) at times. The researches were able to quickly and assuredly demonstrate this via the use of radioactive tracers injected into the big tree. Within minutes, a
Geiger counter showed material being moved to a little guy nearby that was in too much shade to be producing very much photosynthate (carbohydrates). Absolutely amazing stuff out there in the woods, the typical Western view is that of competition, competition, and more competition. It would seem then that a mutualistic, cooperative thing is going on to an even greater degree than the perhaps more obvious race for sunlight.

I sure can bend these topics into new directions, can't I!

+oM