Appreciating the Trumpet Creeper

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Famed professor David Creech was asked to look at a vine growing on the Great Wall in China, built some seven hundred years ago. After all these years, this wall was in danger of being destroyed by an invasive species – our own native trumpet creeper, Campsis radicans. There is a Chinese trumpet vine, Campsis grandiflora, with beautiful, soft orange flowers and a more modest rate of growth. If, however, you want to feel more kindly to our thuggish native Campsis radicans, read “This week at Hilton Pond Another Ode to Trumpet Creeper” by naturalist and hummingbird enthusiast extraordinaire William Hilton, who leads expeditions to study ruby throated hummingbirds in their winter climes and banded over seven thousand five hundred at his former Rock Hill Home.