My Favorite Plant.(trumpet vine)(Brief Article)

Ten years ago I planted a trumpet vine in my small, urban backyard garden. For five years it did not bloom. One spring day in the sixth year, I looked at the vine and said in a threatening voice, "If you do not bloom this year, I will pull you up by your roots and plant a clematis!" Would you believe that two months later I noticed small buds on the tip end of the branches, and soon these grew to be clusters of bright orange trumpet flowers.

The trumpet is a deciduous climber and a member of the Campsis family. You often see it along the roadside climbing over tree stumps or fences. Garden books warn that it is an invasive vine, but mine has simply grown over the top …