So Much For Trumpeting That Idea

The idea was simple enough. I had all these wild hummingbird, or trumpet vines growing around my yard; why not encourage these charming Missouri wildflowers to grow up tree trunks so hummingbirds can more easily reach them?

Sure enough, late spring hummingbirds would appear and help themselves to the nectar inside the long red orange flower tubes.

After a few years, I started to notice hummingbird vines popping up ALL over the garden, to the point of being invasive. They don't grow on runners; as far as I could tell, they weren't being carried in by birds, or by myself when I planted new plants.

When I finally looked up this summer, guess what I saw.

By encouraging hummingbird vines to grow in trees, I was also making sure their seed pods were scattered far and wide.