A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Yellow Trumpet Vine

I have a yellow trumpet vine (campsis radicans "Flava")that is about 4 years old and has never bloomed. It is planted against a fence facing south west, full sun almost all day. I have tried pruning it in the spring, and still no flowers. Have tried leaving it unpruned and again no flowers. Any advice? I've been told that it should bloom on old wood after 3 years....any truth to this?

I did a search on non-blooming trumpet creepers and found numerous people who had the same problem--some vines that hadn't bloomed in 6 or 7 years. Most people however, didn't have that problem.

The only real idea anyone had was not to fertilize or plant in rich soil. Poor soil perhaps will stimulate less vegetative growth and more flowers.

It took my yellow and red trumpet vines 5 years each to bloom for the first time. I was ready to pull them out, when I finally saw the first blooms on my daughter's birthday - yea!

Did you prune them, or did you leave them alone?