How to Grow and Care for Crossvine Flowers (Bignonia capreolata)

Years after the fact, I remain flummoxed as to why my neighbor Daniel – an otherwise normal, rational person – ripped down and pulled out a spectacular, 20-foot-tall labyrinth of colorful crossvine that was growing on a trellis he had built up against his house.

Crossvine is a fast-growing climbing vine that can reach 50 feet tall. In early spring, it produces clusters of showy orange-red, sometimes yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers against a background of four- to six-inch-long glossy leaves.

When new leaves appear, they’re a light green color. As they mature and summer progresses, they deepen to a dark green. And then in winter some, but not all, of the leaves turn reddish-purple.

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Crossvine is native to forested areas of east Texas, as well as parts of the southeastern, eastern, and midwestern United States.

But back to my neighbor. I never did get a good answer out of him. I think he was just tired of it.

Tired of the low-maintenance, evergreen perennial that was a neighborhood conversation piece? Okay, Lieutenant Dan.

I think fighting so many fires throughout his career with the Austin Fire Department must have fried his brain… (Just kidding, Dan!)

Don’t be like Daniel. Plant a crossvine, watch it grow, and then let it be. This article will teach you how to do that. Here’s what’s ahead:

Bignonia capreolata is sometimes called trumpet vine or quarter vine.

Botanically, you may hear it referred to as Anisostichus capreolata, Doxantha capreolata, or Anisostichus crucigera, though these names are now considered taxonomically incorrect.

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