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A native vine for hummingbirds and goldfinches

2008 July 3

Originally published July 3, 2008
by Ken Moore
Staff Writer

Right now I celebrate the native trumpet vine, Campsis radicans. Some folks call it trumpet creeper or cow-itch vine. There are likely other names associated with this common weedy vine with bright-orange, tubular flowers that are guaranteed to attract hummingbirds. Keep an eye out for the occasional peach- or yellow-colored variations. The flowers seem to hang in the air, singly or in clusters, at the tips of long stems reaching down from varying heights, be it low fence posts or abandoned barn chimneys.
One of my favorite specimens is a vine on a utility pole on Weaver Dairy Road between Carol Woods and Timberlyne Shopping Center. That vine-covered pole looks like a mop-headed giant having a bad-hair day when it’s covered with those orange flowers reaching out all around.
Equally dramatic is the trumpet vine-covered privet hedge in front of Peck and Artisans Studio between Auto Logic and Akai Hana restaurant in Carrboro. Owner Tim Peck is sophisticated enough to allow it to creep onto his building.
I am fortunate to have one that sprouted at the base of the tall cedar post on which my mailbox is mounted. It’s now reached the top, and is sending orange flowers out from way up high as well as having some lower-reaching stems to tickle the postman at the letter box.
My very favorite urban specimen trumpet vine is the robust one along the front driveway on Rosemary Street just opposite Padgett Station. I enjoy watching it produce flowers for weeks during these long, hot, dry, summer days.
The trumpet vine provides a special winter season bonus. Don’t prune it back in the fall. Leave the bare stems reaching out into the winter landscape for architectural interest with the four-to-seven-inch-long brownish, dry, beanpod-like fruit hanging at the tips. In early December, keep a keen eye on those seed pods. This past winter, I enjoyed watching goldfinches hanging onto those pods energetically extracting the papery winged seeds from within those barely open pods. If you feel the need to prune the stems back, hold off until late February.
To see more drought-tolerant native vines worthy of cultivation in the home landscape, visit the vine-covered arbor along the south side of Coker Arboretum along Cameron Street. In addition to the trumpet vine, you’ll find the red tubular flowers of coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, and the orange-red flowers of cross-vine, Bignonia capreolata, both of which also attract hummingbirds. In contrast, you’ll find blue-flowered clusters of the re-blooming native wisteria, Wisteria frutescens. Watch closely. Hummingbirds most likely will also go for the nectar in the fat clusters of blue flowers, because those flying nectar-lovers aren’t restricted to tubular red and orange flowers.
If you aren’t lucky enough to have these native vines occurring naturally for you, the local nurseries carry one or more of them, including named cultivars. Southern States in Carrboro has a great cultivar of trumpet vine as well as the other vines described here. Also check out Niche Gardens, which usually has native vines in stock. These dramatic vines are too satisfactory not to have one or more growing in your garden.

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