This is trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) lifesize. Much bigger than coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) but also loved by the hummingbirds.
Trumpet vine is a house eater. I spent a good six years killing off the one that had been getting under the siding and into the light fixtures. It would pop up fifteen feet from the mother plant.
I tried transplanting some to grow up a pine tree and out-thug the Japanese honeysuckle, but it is not happy there. Eight years without a flower.
If you ever plant trumpet vine it needs sun, a massive pergola or fence to grow on, and about twenty feet clear around it where you can mow and cut down any shoots.
My MIL planted one right next to her house—same story. I told her not to. Her reply? One of my SIL had given her a hummingbird vine, not a trumpet vine. No, no, no. Okay. Which one of us is an accountant and which one works at a greenhouse? 15 years and we still haven’t eradicated the &*%^#! thing!
I've placed a nice vinyl arbor to one side that I've tried to train it into a tree form of a Japanese Wisteria plant. It only bloomed one year. And this year I was sure I did everything right from timing of pruning, cutting roots, and keeping fertilizer away from it. Since the blooms occur as it leafs out, I don't see any blooms.
I'm so disappointed. My husband wants to chop it down. The trunk is at least 5” thick and it is at least 10 years old. I see lovely Japanese wisteria in pictures of gardens. When I go to cooperative extension, they just look up what we all can read in books.
Two years ago I cut all the foliage off based on a poster on Dave's Garden does. The poster has lovely wisteria grown as small trees in pots. But, he is in CA and I'm on Long Island. I thought last years no flowers was from cutting off all the foliage at the end of August.
Then a few weeks ago, I was on the East End of Long Island and saw some wineries near the road. They had severely cut back the grape vines to only allow 2 lateral branches and 2 branches going straight up which I assume is to make lateral shoots up at a higher level.
I'm not ready to give up on it. The Horticulturist at our local big nursery, Hicks, said I should get an American wisteria.
Pardon me about my wisteria obsession.
