May 2015 - Dodging the Campsis radicans bulletCrisis narrowly averted! Everyone will tell you that C

May 2015 - Dodging the Campsis radicans bulletCrisis narrowly averted! Everyone will tell you that Campsis radicans is a great hummingbird magnet, a lush and hearty native (to North America) vine covered in gorgeous flowers. Places will sell this plant to you in different colors. Many people will also go on rather hysterically online about how it will destroy foundations, fences, and your relationships with your neighbors. I saw it performing wonderfully on telephone poles in Atlanta and fell in love; I’ve seen it performing beautifully on telephone poles less than a mile from here and continued said love from afar. When a gardener sent me some seeds of the beautiful ‘Red Sunset’ (pictured at top, source) I couldn’t wait to plant them.And I thought: whatevs. These people complaining are planting tough things in too nice soil and they’re all in Texas or Louisiana. We’re colder up here, a shorter growing season. Then I noticed people in Ohio and New Jersey talking about how Roundup didn’t work you have to use Torgon 22k (which is ugly - it’s very persistent in the soil), how it sends out runners from the roots, how it was as bad as Passiflora incarnata. And I thought: whatevs, I can barely coax out fruits in time on my Passifloras. We love it! Then I noticed another experienced gardener saying they wished they’d never planted it*, it brought them so much grief, and I started to pause. Then I noticed a gardener in New York who said if you grew it in a pot and pruned it constantly AND removed every single seed pod before they fluttered away in the wind you could keep in control. Suddenly the tough, beautiful and low maintenance native plant was sounding extremely high maintenance.Really what changed my mind was the plant itself. Check out the INSANE roots on these things! Last year a very nice gardener sent me these seeds, the ‘Red Sunset’ and I had great germination rates; looked at pretty pictures and made big dreams. These plants have been in a black concrete mixing tray for a year. They have been purposefully watered maybe 5 times. They were left out all winter in this tray. All last summer too. Hot dry cold wet flooding freezing, this plant does not give a damn. The last photo, V is pointing to a growth tip. That same particular plant had 2 more, on the other root branches. We are not in a tropical area. This is crazy growth to see from a perennial grown from seed in a year in zone 6. The fact that so many germinated so well from seed PLUS the fact that it sends out runners willynilly means that this would actually be a terrible plant here, even down in our more wild areas. V told me he would be okay with me planting it as long as he didn’t have to deal with it (in 5 years when it had gotten out of control). There’s no way I could make that guarantee with a plant this freaking aggressive.You always want to match plants to the conditions you can provide them. It might be perfect in the urban jungle or Siberia. Anything that sends out runners from the roots this vigorously, be wary of. *This is a giant red flag. Experience has taught me that if you ever read/hear/see an experienced gardener mention this, pay attention, or you may be saying the exact words a few years down the line. -- source link

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