I have a Campsis x tagliabuana 'Madame Galen' (a cross)trumpet vine that is vigorous but not invasive in my zone 5 garden. Mine was planted in 2004. I have mine growing in quite a bit of shade and use it to hide some ugly brick. It gives a nice solid green backdrop that I like. I stretch mine out sideways in two directions and it grows about 20-25 feet at most. Mine does not bloom, perhaps originally because of the part shade. However, I read on Dave's that it does not bloom (or is very slow to bloom) for many people, supposedly because it may have been started from immature stock. As my trumpet vine grew older I began cutting it back each year in early spring to 3-5 feet and letting it regrow, which it does quickly. This keeps it exactly where I want it - on what I want and since it climbs by itself there is almost no work for me at all after its yearly haircut. It does not send up runners across the way or anything like that, and can't spread its seed or anything because it has no flowers! I tried a Campsis radicans Flamenco and it died out in a couple of years. I think it may have been too wet, or so slow to show itself that I planted something else into it. Some other vines I use that you might be interested in are honeysuckles, the very nice Lonicera sempervirens 'Blanche Sandman' has lots of scarlet blooms and is very well-behaved. Mine was planted in 2005. I did have another one with flame in the name, Goldflame, Pink Lemonade ?? something like that, anyway that one mildewed badly for me, something I hardly ever get in this garden, but this one probably got shaded out too much by some enlarging shrubbery making it weak. I eventually removed it. It had the typical narrow tubular blooms that were a pretty pink color. However, neither of these two vines get really long like a trumpet vine or a sweet autumn clematis do. My two sweet autumns both get well over 20 feet, but unlike in the south, I have never had a single seedingl off of mine. The SACs gets cut back to 3-5 feet from the woody base and regrow covering most of a 60 foot stretch of fence. In addition, I also have a Halls (japonica) honeysuckle which is considered by most everyone to be invasive. I love the thing and planted it long before I knew it was supposed to be a problem, well over 10 years ago. It is some work for me, but not outlandish by any means. It blooms very well and has a wonderful scent. It may be a true invasive getting into wild places and such, but I have not been able to bring myself to remove it, especially since it is available for sale everywhere around here. With the Hall's honeysuckle I limit (cut out) the number of main stalks coming out of the ground each spring, make sure everything goes up the structure including later emerging growth, as it does try to root if pieces or stems are left on the ground, then let it waterfall down, being careful again not to let it touch the ground. I also cut out some of the undergrowth if it gets too bushy in midseason after its main growth period is over. It blooms for over a month in mid-spring through early summer. It mostly blooms on old wood, which is why I restrict the number of stems rather that cutting it all back in spring, I do get some repeat bloom later in the season. Every three years or so I cut it back hard and let it regrow - maybe 15 foot max with cutbacks, somewhat longer without them. I can't really recommend this one, if it is invasive to the environment, but it is very manageable in my climate in my conditions with reasonable pruning.

My trumpet vine bloomed last year for the first time. I waited many years for this, but can't remember how many for sure. It was easily 6-8 years of nothing but green foliage. It might even have been 10, I just can't remember but it seemed like forever, and I had given up hope of ever seeing any blossoms. I never pruned it, fertilized it, or did much of anything for it. It is growing up the bricks of the front of my mother's house, and is only in part sun--maybe 2 hours in the early morning, then dappled light for another 3 or so, then perhaps another 2 before the sun disappears behind the house in the mid afternoon. In spite of only partial sun, it always seemed quite healthy and green. I have heard that trumpet vines take a long time to mature, and that other people have had problems, too, with getting them to bloom. Once they do, I've seen specimens just smothered in bloom. Mine bloomed enough to attract the hummers, but not as heavily as others I've seen. I'm sure my partially shady situation hasn't helped. If you have a sunnier site, perhaps you will be luckier. It has really been a hummingbird magnet. They were absolutely crazy about it last summer. I think mine is the variety called "flava," which has pale orangey yellow blooms, instead of the usual orange to red. It is adapted to be pollinated by hummingbirds, and the stamens are placed so as to deposit pollen on the foreheads of these tiny birds--really cute to see them with the tops of their heads dusted yellow! Once pollinated, it gets huge pods that look like gigantic 10" long beans. I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance. I don't know if pruning would help, or fertilizing. I'm just afraid that whatever you do, you may be in for a long wait.

Thank you for the additional information on the Trumpet Vines. It seems like everything I was looking at was a trumpet "something or other" so it's nice to know that I don't have to exclude them altogether. I was initially considering a bougainvilla, but the person at the nursery told me that they are high maintanence. He said the drop their flowers and their leaves. Are they really that much more maintenance than other flowering vines? Also, do they have to be cut back and are the difficult to train? The fence is very tall, and I can't see myself out there with a step ladder very often tying it up, but I bet they would really love that fence! Thanks so much for the replies. They are very helpful!

Amy, I have seen lots of bees and butterflies at basil flowers, so I guess I wouldn't be too surprised to see hummingbirds there too. As they migrate, they do desperately search out every possible nectar source they can find. It takes a lot of "good eats" to fuel their long journey south. I can always tell when the hummingbirds are migrating because all of a sudden our hummingbird feeders become insanely busy. While our resident hummingbirds tend to spend a lot of time in the garden visiting all the flowers there and often don't even visit the nectar feeders at all, the migrants tend to zoom right in on the feeders and then hang around them for hours (or even days) as they rest and fuel up for the next portion of their journey. They eat as if they are starving and cannot eat enough. Last night we had the most visitors at our front porch hummingbird feeders that I've ever seen. There were maybe 20 or 25 hummingbirds fighting over two feeders. Each feeder had a hummingbird at every feeding port, several hovering around and trying to force their way in and more zooming back and forth between the two feeders trying to force their way in. It was crazy and we watched through a window in amazement. It was near twilight and they were eating fairly greedily. I am not sure if this was a bunch of new migrating hummingbirds that had just found our house and the feeders or if they are the ones that have been around the last 3 or 4 days all trying to get their final meal of the night or what. Usually it is a busy evening if there's 3 or 4 at each feeder and last night's numbers far surpassed that. I think I have another couple of feeders in the garage that we haven't been using because our resident hummers just don't visit the feeders when I have lots of flowers in bloom. I'm going to search for those other feeders this morning and if I find them, I'll make more nectar and fill them and hang them. Because of the flash drought we have almost no flowers blooming in our pastures now, so I think it is possible these hummers have been having a bit of a hard time finding enough flowers in bloom as they journey through southern OK. Jessaka, We cut cedars whenever we have time, though only in winter since the only cedar trees left on our property are in the woods. We used to have tons of them in our pastures but worked away steadily at taking them out. We'll never get rid of the really big ones at the back of our property as they are 40-60' tall and so dense you cannot cut one because it wouldn't fall over---the surrounding trees would hold it up. Still, we're determined to keep the rest of our property from being overrun by cedars. We have vines (grapevines, Carolina snailseed, peppervine and others) climbing all over many of our hardwoods, but almost never see a vine climbing a cedar. I'm not sure why. After we cut some of the cedars in our fields, the bare soil that used to sit beneath the cedar stayed barren for a couple of years as if the soil was somehow poisoned and nothing would grow there. Eventually and very slowly the pasture grasses did creep back into the soil but it took years for it to happen. So many fields here have become wall to wall cedar trees growing so thickly together you cannot walk through the field or drive a tractor through it. It is a sad sight to see. Dawn