Trumpet Creeper, Campsis

Bjorn

Hi,

I've been searching on different boards to find this species among bonsai.

Can't find any, not even on google.
Is it suitable for bonsai cultivation?

If you don't know this plant, look here:
http://www.garden-picture.com/fotos...ggr/imggr7.html

All imput welcome !

Advertisement

jloeschner

These plants have large compound leaves, and depending on where you live, can be very vigorous and invasive. They are decidous vines, much like wisteria. Their blooms are quite large, and give of an offensive smell (at least, it is offensive to me). They also attract ants by the droves. As for their suitability for bonsai, I am not sure. They could probably be trained like a grape or wisteria, but I have never seen one with a trunk much larger than an inich or so in diameter. If you decide to try, please keep us informed...

John

Oh, yeah, and their fruits are VERY large banana-shaped bean pods...which also attract ants like crazy!

__________________
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

QUI ME AMAT, AMAT ET CANEM MEAM

Bjorn

hi,

thank you,
the part where you talk about the ants ... that worries me
is this only when it blooms or just always?

toyota4wd94

If you find it dont let it get started in your yard. you will never get rid of it!
I had one and it would run on the roots and come up 10-15 feet where it used to be! i cut it down and still havent got rid of it.
Regards,

Dave

__________________
"You can fight without ever winning,
but never ever win without a fight"
RUSH (resist)

rockm

Trumpet vine can make great bonsai, just like wisteria, especially if you find large stock.

I've been thinking about colleting one for quite some time. I haven't yet...

On the positive side, this plant is rampant around here and easily collectible from the woods. There are vines with trunks three feet in diameter in older sites. The plants can make picturesque trunks easily.

On the negative side, the large compound leave don't reduce, so you would have to use large collected stock (over four inches in diameter--although I'd think at least a foot in diameter would be minimum) to begin with. It also doesn't make branches readily and is even more difficult in this area than wisteria. It's new growth is very floppy.

Perhaps the biggest negative is that this plant can produce skin reactions similar to poison ivy in some people.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/...son/Campsra.htm

It is known in some areas of its range as "cow itch." It didn't get that name for nothing. I've had some itchy encounters with it. The skin irritation doesn't last as long as poison ivy, but can be just as itchy. I'd think pruning it as a bonsai could turn into an ordeal...

Bjorn

Ok,

so down sides:
- attracting ants by the drove
- leaves don't reduce in size
- only very big trunks are suitable (if you find one)
- possion/skin irritation
- produces root-suckers like crazy
- bad ramification; worse than wisteria
- offencive smelling flowers

on the positive side:
- are there any positives

bonsaibandit05

Postive sides:
hard to kill
easy to collect

With all the down sides, doesnt sound like one I am going to try.

__________________
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952

rockm

The most postive thing about this species (and the reason I haven't totally wirtten it off) is that is is quite capable of producing astounding trunks--to rival the most picturesque wisteria. I've seen several a few hundreds yards from my backdoor that are growing up tall Va. pine. The trunks twist and turn like pythons in the first two or three feet. They are about 8 inches or more in diameter. There is one notable vine growing up a 70 foot tall tulip poplar on a bluff at a state park on the Potomac that is almost three feet in diameter and has some pretty dramatic movement inthe first foot (highly unnusual and desirable for any bonsai)

This stuff also can't be killed...and it's EVERYWHERE here in the middle Atlantic states down to the Gulf Coast.

The down side is very steep though...

jloeschner

Rockm,

Wow,I didn't know that these things got so big. I guess most folks around here chop them down before they can even begin to get that large.

John

__________________
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

QUI ME AMAT, AMAT ET CANEM MEAM