Unwanted Plant

Question

I have a small shrub – no idea what the name is. I took a start of the plant from an old homeplace and put it in my flower bed. It puts on small orange bell-shaped flowers, almost like a honeysuckle bloom. It is not a trumpet vine or even a vine but more of a woody shrub. Hummingbirds love it and it grows very well here in West Texas with lots of sun and scarce water. However, my problem is that it puts up hundreds of shoots – everywhere! It grows in my patio, yard, fence lines. It is also crowding out some of my other plants. Every time I try to trim it, it just grows back with gusto. I don’t want to use a chemical that might damage my rose bush or other plants but I cannot seem to get rid of all those shoots this bush puts off. Any ideas would be most welcome. Thanks a bunch for your time.

Answer 1

It sounds like it may be trumpet bush, which is related to trumpet vine but grows like a shrub and the flowers tend to hang down and are a bit thinner. It is also as hard to get rid of as trumpet vine. The methods in this article on removing trumpet vine will also work on trumpet bush: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/vines/trumpet-vine/kill-trumpet-vine.htm You will not be able to stop it from sending shoots up unless you kill it completely. If you plan on killing it, using a paintbrush to immediately paint the fresh cuts of the remaining stump with Round-up will help to kill the roots and guarantee that the surrounding plants are not harmed by overspray from the chemical.