Carol Bradford: Birds love creepers, but will you?

0212fcart2.JPG Courtesy of Carol T. Bradford TRUMPET VINE,or creeper, can put on yards of new growth every year and can be overly rampant in a tight place. The vine blooms on the new wood, so it can be pruned very hard in early spring and will flower normally in late July. The red-orange flowers (below) are irresistible to ruby-throated hummingbirds during their migration south in late summer.
Dear Carol:Last summer I put in a 91-foot-long chain link fence to separate my property from my neighbor's. I am considering a trumpet vine to spread across the height and length of the fence. This will be costly, and I am not familiar with this vine. Should I consider another type? -- R.S., Syracuse.

Dear R.S.: Ninety-one feet would be a lot of trumpet vine or creeper (Campsis radicans). Every choice has plusses and minuses. The good features of trumpet vine are that the flowers are large, beautiful and attractive to beneficial insects and birds.

The vine is native to the Eastern and Central United States and is a strong grower, capable of hiding practically any ugly or utilitarian garden feature from an old stump to a fallen down barn. It's good for large spaces. The leaves, fruit (bean-like capsules) and flowers show that it is related to catalpas and tropical jacarandas, and it does have that lush exotic look, although it's perfectly hardy in most of New York apart from the higher elevations, colder than USDA zone 4.

The minuses are that it is deciduous, so is better looking in the summer than in the winter. It has little fall color. It is messy because the spent flowers drop for a long time onto a lawn or walkway. It doesn't really climb and would have to be tied in to a fence. It flings itself over whatever is in its path, and it requires maintenance to stay confined.

As it is woody, it will work itself through the chain link (or the gaps in a wooden fence) and will have to be cut out every so often so it doesn't ruin the fence. It also suckers, so if it is left alone, it can gobble up a large area. The suckers can be dug up and transplanted. If you have the time and can wait several years, buying one trumpet vine would be enough. The stems can grow 40 feet long, but they usually need regular pruning.

Vines can be tricky because their nature is to grow practically without bounds. The gardener must be firm-minded and take the time to prune and train the vines for best effect.

Weeding at the base of a chain link fence is no fun. I would run a row of boards along the bottom so that using a string trimmer is easier. Using herbicides along a property line can be problematical. Set out as few vine plants as possible and train them horizontally so that the only hand weeding will be right around the plant crowns.

Vines climb either by twining, like a morning glory, with tendrils like a grape or clematis, or with sticky pads or rootlets like ivy or Virginia creeper. Annual twiners or woody vines with tendrils are good for chain link fences.
