Campsis radicans
Origin: Accokeek, Maryland
Improvement status: Wild
Seeds per packet: ~50
BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED
Life cycle: Perennial
Orange Trumpet Vine is a much-loved woody climbing vine native to eastern North America. It produces large (3-5 inch) trumpet-like flowers beloved by hummingbirds and other pollinators (that's right: hummingbirds are pollinators). Trumpet vine follows up its flowers with long pods full of paper-thin seeds that flutter to the ground once the pods open up. Plants can take over a tree, or a building, or a fence, so best to plant these with intention. It can be trained into very effective and attractive ground-cover. Also said to have some medicinal uses (the root is considered diaphoretic — makes one sweat — and vulnerary — wound-healing). Despite a somewhat appetizing look, the whole plant should be considered poisonous and not ingested.
Nate collected these seeds from the wild in Accokeek, Maryland.
NOTE: First image is a 1926 watercolor by Mary Vaux Walcott from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection (in the public domain). Others are public domain images of this species (we only saw the Maryland plants well after blooming had finished).
GROWING TIPS: Seeds can be planted fall, winter, or spring. Direct-seeded or started in flats. Does well on a warm wall or fence in good loamy soil in full sun or light shade. Plants can go rampant. vining 40 feet or more. Hardy to about -5°F or colder. Plants are self-clinging by aerial roots, much like ivy. but do best with some support. The best time to prune them back is spring.
