Hi! New to the site and looked up trumpet vine threads and really only saw planting and general info. I moved and now own a neglected completely overgrown bush. Not that I mind because it is on the front lawn, near the driveway, and nothing else is planted next to it so there is no risk of taking over other plants or flowers. They are the orange, I believe, Madam Galan variety. The postitve is that it is flowering abundantly, so it seems ok, not dead in the least, though I have noticed ants in particular. and bugs all over it. So I was wondering if that is ok or if I should use some type of product to keep the bugs down to a minimum or perhaps just leave the vines be. Also, the vines have grown so long, they have broken the poles used to train them to climb and maintain their shape and the blooms are now just scraping the gound with vines flopped all over the lawn. It is mid-August in NJ and I was wondering if I should prune at all. There are some dead leaves and vines and other parts of it are mostly green and blooming and I don't want to mess this up. But I don't want to leave the vines and blooms like that either. If I prune, will it hurt it? Usually in books and other recommendations I have read 3 differing opinions. Prune only in Fall, only in Winter, or whenever you wish. So that is why I am stumped. LOL! Just want to make sure I can help them along, cut them at the right time, and eventually give them a shape, while not hurting them. Also, any recommendations as far as food, fertilizer if they would require them. Thanks so much!
Just an update... The trumpet vines were lying around, blooms hitting the ground and I had to do something,espcially because the lawn has to be cut soon and I don't want the mower to touch the beautiful orange blooms. I replaced the broken supports and made a wonderful find. In the garage was a fence-like decorative support, like a mini-trellis and we managed to get it securely into the ground where the vines are. The vines are not so thick and woody and vast, I am going to say that there are a lot of vines but if they could be stretched out are probably around 7 to 8 feet in length, so it was possible to prop them up over the supports. Thank God they were not so heavy and we could move them. They were already arched after years of being trained that way and it looks so much better than it did. Vines that were younger and flopped on the ground are now draped over the supports to join the rest. So I now have all of the blooms neatly placed somewhat and off the grass. I removed dead leaves and cut a bit of brown vines that appear dead. I also cleaned up and removed dead blooms and bits of vine that had broken off and were on the grass laying there. I did some research and I'm not sure there is anything more I can do now. Some of the books I have said to prune it after the blooming period is over in late Fall early Winter. Is that correct? I don't want to hurt it. Also, I have seen people with trumpet vine disaster stories during my research on the internet and I can understand, not having had the vines before this. I was pulling weeds yesterday and walking several feet away from where the trumpet vines were and started noticing that the weeds I was pulling were getting especially difficult and I could no longer remove them. Oh,boy, they are not weeds, after a few mighty pulls I noticed the leaves matched the vines and the roots were woody. They are trumpet vine roots now spreading to different parts of the lawn and very far from and nowhere near the orignal vines. I cut them before my lawn eventually becomes a jungle. I would just like to maintain the one area of vines that I have that are trained over the supports and are the originals. If anybody has any pieces of advice or if I did anything wrong or should do anyting further please let me know. Thanks, Shrinking Violet
I don't have a Trumpet Vine but do have it's cousin the Crossvine. I don't think there is much you can do to hurt either one of them. I trim mine whenever it is growing someplace it shouldn't - like up over the roof. I have never tried cutting it back to let it start over again, tho. And the trim job I give it is not pretty but it recovers in a few weeks and fills in the bare spots. Trumpet Vine is considered invasive down here because it really likes the climate, 7-8 foot long vines are pretty short compared to the length of some you see climbing up and over 12 foot tall fences. It can be kept a more reasonable size for the location you have it in by snipping off the vines to keep it shorter and that can be done any time of the year without harming the plant. If you happen to run over a stray vine with the lawnmower it isn't going to hurt the plant, not sure much of anything can hurt that plant As far as the bugs go, don't go spraying them until you find out what kind of bug it is, you don't want to kill off the beneficial bugs. Ants are going to go where they want, if you find a mound of ones whose sting is bad then you can treat the mound but I wouldn't worry about them being on a plant. One thing you said just finally creeped into my thoughts....this has been kept as a bush, next to the driveway? That is going to be a constant source of work for you since keeping it shaped into a bush is not it's normal growing pattern. Could we see a photo?
Thanks Toni! We took some pictures yesterday with a camera and this place needs as much work outside as inside so we've been pretty busy. We have to try downloading the pictures and uploading them to the site. We've never done that before. So we have to figure it out. Otherwise I have pictures of the vines, other flowers and shrubs, and a few of things that I just don't know what they are.
Check out the How To Post Photos really easy but if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. And the Plant ID forum is waiting for the photos of those unknown plants too. Also, the Member's Gallery loves to help you show of the photos of your other plants. We can keep you busy here too
Thanks so much. Sounds pretty simple to do. There are so many threads I wasn't sure even where to put stuff. Just very concerned because the previous owners have so much stuff and almost nothing is blooming. Now neighbors said that some was in the Spring so it could just be that some of what is there is seasonal. However, The grass grew abundantly and probably aided bug problems and plant disease problems. And the lawn was scorched and somewhat brown by the summer which allows me to guess that if the lawn wasn't watered the poor plant-life wasn't either.
