Yeah, not to be the plant police or anything, but just f.y.i.: the above photo is an excellent example of an invasive honeysuckle from Asia. This is a Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) that was not planted by us. It invaded our yard a few years ago, and we have yet to get it completely eradicated. It's an extremely aggressive grower, to say the least. The leaves all over what looks like a shrub in this photo are actually the leaves of the Japanese honeysuckle, not the leaves of the shrub that was there before the invasion. The garden bed in the photo above was once full of beautiful Columbine flowers, shrubs, etc. But as you can see, the invasive Asian honeysuckle has strangled all the other plants that once grew here. We're in the process of eradicating the Japanese honeysuckle now, but it's hard work, especially in the summer heat. As for the Asian Lonicera tatarica, the Virginia Department of Conservation lists Lonicera tatarica as a "moderately invasive species". It's not banned in Virginia. Yet. Here's the web address of the invasive listing from Invasive.org for Lonicera tatarica: INVASIVE.org: Tatarian honeysuckle http://www.invasive.org/species/subject.cfm?sub=3043 Yes, Lonicera tatarica will grow 12 feet and perhaps more. It will require frequent pruning in an attempt to keep it under control, especially to keep it at a teeny-tiny size of 5 feet. I would try any of these vines listed below instead. They all have a wonderful fragrance: Evening trumpetflower (Gelsemium sempervirens) Virgin's Bower (Clematis virginiana) American fly honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis) American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) Some of these you would need to prune a lot too to keep the size small, but at least you won't be harming America's wildlife habitats (and wildlife) by planting them. Here is a link that might be useful: Invasive Alien Plant Species of Virginia

It is trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, and is native to the eastern US, NOT Venezuela!! It is a very aggressive spreader once established and will send out shoots from its root system over a considerable distance. Many who have planted this in a small garden find this extremely problematic as these shoots will pop up everywhere, even through cracks in paving and in any nearby planting areas and long after the original vine has been cut down or removed.

There are areas around here that are stunningly beautiful and look like a postcard with rolling farm hills and red barns. It's about 10 minutes from where I am. There are also lots and lots of orchards up higher toward the mountains. You can also go way up to Mt Spokane and ski in winter. The town is divided somehow into 4 places. There's West where the AFB is and its mostly plains areas, the South area is up on a rocky hill and it has great views and horrible driving in winter, the North side is more crowded, smaller lots, poorer area unless you get way out North toward Deer Park and its just really really beautiful. Farms everywhere and red barns and rolling hills and roads that wind up into the hills. So way out of town about half an hour after you break traffic it gets really pretty. We live in the Eastern part of town which is called the Valley. It's huge. There is East Valley, West Valley, Central Valley and Greenacres which is where we are. We are 10 minutes or less from Idaho border. This area, this little strip on one side of Appleway (named for the apple orchards) is like in another dimension. It feels like the 1950's, there's lots of people working on older cars, there's horses around behind my house, the lots are huge. I mean really really huge. And they're uneven, so one house might have an entire acre behind it, and the next one further into town might have 2/3 of an acre so it's split up oddly, but the lots are more like acreage. There's no small lots unless you run into those awful communities that so many people love that I can't stand where all the houses look alike, they tell you the color to paint your house, and you have to get permission to plant stuff. Just not my style. There are locked communities just outside town on all 3 sides for people who live in mansions I suppose, just not my style. I've always loved farmhouses, we've rented lots of them, fixed them up, moved into other farm houses, fixed them up, and then I finally got this one one such a nice lot. It's double fenced because of the horses. Horse people do not like your dogs running back and forth along the fence barking when they're working their horses, so we fenced halfway back where the forest of trees are, and shut out the back pasture, which has only 1 tree and its open. That's the one that really needs development with landscaping and it has to fit into this area. So nothing modern, stuff like grapes along the fencing, it's cattle fencing with old posts back there that are likely 100 years old. I'm growing food gardens back there now, but I want a golden curls willow back there, and somehow a Queen Anne Cherry tree starting growing on the North leftside. I consider myself and our family really lucky even though the houses are small. They were mostly built 1920's or after. Ours was the first one, they're all small 2 bedroom 1 bathroom with mother in law setups out back and then pasture land. The taxes are through the roof, it's the black soil, and the schools. It's really high, and its all worth it to me. Plus the whole street is treed out front over the street, so this street itself is just gorgeous. People walk their dogs and sometimes horses down the street. We are indeed lucky. Lots of people have chickens, everyone has dogs, some have up to 5 dogs, cats are everywhere because of the barns, and horses. Also, apparently there are porcupines and skunks. My neighbor said "they really love your jungle over there". funny

I had a boogie in a rental house in Hawaii, actually at my father's house that I lived at for awhile . It perched over a hill that went over a perfectly manicured Japanese garden . That thing had 10" diameter trunk and it divided at the base and was HUGE. It fell down on this woman's garden after a Kona Storm. IT was a steep slope below the plant. My boyfriend at the time had an old Ford Truck with a tall pipe rack on it that went up higher than the cab. We filled that thing up three times and took it to the dump. Did I mention that Bougies have thorns? We tried to access it all from above and not walk on her garden but she had gardened right up under it. She was very appreciative none the less and took the damage as part of life. She had enjoyed having this incredible wall of color hiding a un-gardenable slope and we did the best we could... I never realized that it was the landowners responsibility, not mine till later. I don't think he ever heard about it. She said she had never seen a haole girl work as hard as I did before. She was Japanese and we made friends over the experience. I am still friends with her daughters who all watched me critically from their lanai. That bougie took it in stride and was almost as large a year later. I have admired them vicariously. They love warm and arid .