What is this thing?

Actually...I don't even care what it is...how do I kill it???I just can't get rid of it and it is coming up in like 5 different places in my garden.
I have even tried to dig it up and it comes back...

Spray it with 'Round Up' taking care that the spray over-drift doesn't reach any of the desired plantings.

Uh oh.
Looks to me like Trumpet Vine, an extremely invasive Thug. It's listed on the first page of Plantfiles

Lots of comments about it, and pictures of it all stages.

I hope I'm wrong, as it can be a problem to get rid of.
Wish I had better news.

Sasha

Trumpet Vine seems like a beautiful climbing vine that people are buying...is that what I have? I am kinda confussed...

Believe me, I understand what you're saying, but please look at these plant file links:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/151602/

Terry's own commentsOn Aug 31, 2002, Terry from Murfreesboro, TN
(Zone 7a) wrote:
I can't recommend this vine - its flowers are messy (we planted it over a pergola, and it was a constant battle to keep it trimmed back and the floor swept free of "droppings" - and did I mention it is invasive? I just can't think of a place where it would look good and not destroy everything surrounding it. The one positive - birds and bees do like the flowers.

:Here's the whole page from Plantfiles:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/644/

Good luck!

I can tell you that unless you have someplace waaaay out at the back of a very large yard, where it can grow unchecked, you will fight it for years and years- some places far up north do not find it to be an invasive best, as I understand it.

Please take time to read all the comments on the plant file page, before deciding what to do. It's truly a beautiful plant, I agree.

Sasha

i'm in southern pennsylvania, not too far north i guess, and it's a nightmare to keep this plant from taking over. my husband has tried and tried to get rid of it and it won't go away. we have a young maple that's split into about 5 trunks, so we're limited to what we can do to it. we've been cutting it back to the ground for 2 years now and getting out as much root as we can and still it keeps coming back and growing an amazing amount in very short time. not sure who came up with the idea to plant one there, but i wish they'd have rethought the idea!!

our neighbor has a mature one and it is beautiful, but it's well away from her other plants and doesn't seem to get too out of hand for her. it's mowed around regularly and the base is growing up through a section of fence put in just for that purpose, so maybe that keeps it from growing out into where it shouldn't grow. my mother in law says you can train them to grown, and wrap the trunk through anything really, and it'll stay where it's supposed to stay, but i'd think that would take a good many years to get it trained. hers is wound through an old section of ladder, and it's neat to see the trunk criss cross in and out of the ladder rungs.


i'd definitely get rid of it where it's at now if i were you, or do as sashagirl recommended and keep it well away from other plants.

Thanks guys...I definitly did not plant it...but I live in a home that was built 4 years ago and I guess there was woods here before. It is just growing and growing and I have tried to dig it up and I have tried to kill it. It seems to come back a little stronger everytime! Mine does not have flowers...but maybe that is because I don't let it get mature enough...YIKES!!!

It is trumpet vine, I'm pretty sure, and one too immature yet to have flowers.
I think in more northern climes it can be kept in check a little more, but it does spread readily by suckers which can get all over the place if not sprayed or cut off.
I think its a love/hate relatinoship with this plant. You need to understand that it can get huge and unruly, and isn't really a great choice for pergolas or arbors where you want to have a sitting area. I have some planted at my house, it is great for attracting hummingbirds, but as with any nectar plant, it also attracts bees and hornets. Mine is on a trellis way over in my side yard, as a screen for my propane tank where I can enjoy its bloom but stay away from the nasty stingers, and where all the spent flowers and seed pods dropping don't matter, they just get mowed. The suckers and volunteer seedlings get mowed too, and I think that makes them less hardy and unable to survive the cold winters as well.

Sometimes when Roundup doesn't work, I use Brush B Gone and it does the trick - even for briar.

Sometimes when Roundup doesn't work, I use Brush B Gone and it does the trick - even for briar. It doesn't yellow and kill the way Roundup does (at least not as quickly) but after a week or two you can see the impact.