Texas Gardening: Gardening with Texas Native Plants and Wildflowers - Part 2, 1 by frostweed

frostweed wrote:
Hello Bettydee, good to hear from you. I can tell you one thing ,Trumpet vine ; Campsis radicans, needs a lot more room than Crossvine, the reason is because the flowers on the trumpet vine are borne at the ends of the new branch growth, so if you want flowers from them you have to let them make lateral growth, not just length growth. The Crossvine doesn't need lateral growth to bloom, because the flowers form in the leaf axils all along the old branch.
If you want a neat well behaved look, the Trumpet will not do, unless you prune it down to the main mature branches every year. I have seen that done, and it can be very lovely, but you have to stay with it if you want a controlled situation. I have also seen them growing up trees and telephone poles without restriction, and that works very well.
Here is a picture of the Crossvine on the other side of my yard, as you can see the lateral growth is minimal, the lenght is 50 feet all covered with flowers. I don't have a problem with it suckering either.