PlantFiles: Cypress Vine, Star Glory, Hummingbird Vine
Ipomoea quamoclit

A quick scan of observations seems to suggest that if you live in hot climes with long growing seasons -- e.g. TX, GA, TN, MS -- your Cypress Vine is likely to become invasive. Here in Illinois, it is exuberant but controllable -- Its sudden surge of growth doesn't occur until August. For the dismal results observed in northern WI -- It just isn't getting a long enough growing season or warm enough days!

When I first grew Cypress Vine, it tried to crush my privet hedge! After yanking it out of the hedge and watching carefully for the little needle-y babies popping up for the next year or two, we got it cleared out of that spot and found a wonderful place for it. We have it now in a large box with a obelisk in it between our garage doors. Although we occasionally have to pull it off the light fixture and direct it back onto the obelisk, it looks wonderful and cannot reseed on the pavement. Even if it did, the babies are so easy to identify, they are easily removed before they can do any harm. I love it's delicate, sweet appearance and seeing the hummingbirds at it makes me happy!

Once allowed to seed, this is one of the most invasive plants on earth, taking over gardens both flower and vegetable, destroying established plants by choking out sunlight and robbing nutrients. For all of its beauty, I wish I had never seen this plant, at least, in my garden. Round-up and any of the generic counterparts, even with concentrated dilutions, can do little except slow its growth, within a week of spraying, it will move through the shock stage and begin growing again. Truly cannot be controlled except by ripping out of the ground as it begins to vine, which isn't easy as it often breaks at ground level and the process begins again. On telephone/electrical poles and guide wires, I have seen it vine to lengths of 30 to 40 feet from the ground. One vine can produce several thousand seeds which in turn become free seedlings. Perhaps in colder climates it is controllable, however, here in Georgia, from Central to South, it is truly an out of control plant.

I have to start it every year in Jiffy pots, whether I am using store bought seed or seed from last year's vines. Letting the seeds fall to the ground to do their own thing doesn't work -- they won't come back the way morning glories do.

I soak the seeds overnight and place a bamboo skewer in a small pot once I transfer the plants from a seed tray and let them grow indoors until it is warm enough to transplant them outdoors. I have found that I must wait until late May to plant them outdoors. We get cold snaps in April and early to mid May and chilliness kills them. They really take off in July during the hottest time of summer and attract lots of hummingbirds.

I find the red vine much, much more reliable than the pink or white varieties of cypress vine, so I don't even bother with the white or pink anymore.

Self-seeds very freely. Looks especially nice grown with Clematis. Blooms August-September in my garden.

I planted the hummingbird vine 3 years ago. The foliage grows decently, but does not flower. I believe my variety is called the Trumpet. I have it planted facing east and also south. Any ideas on how to get it to blossom? I live in northern WI.

I love this vine. My brother in Texas gave me about 10 seeds about 10 years ago. I have it coming up the banister on my deck every year as well as using it in landscaping at another property. Both locations are between Washington, DC and Baltimore. It reseeds itself easily and I have been pulling it up, and rolling up the whole plant and drying it over the winter. Separating the seeds is easy just using a small fan. Many of my friends are now growing it all over Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. I have planted 5 year old seeds before and they all seemed to sprout and grow.

I planted this vine in jeffy pots from seed that I got from Parks Seed Co. I used the jeffy seed starter soil. The plants took off like crazy so when the time was right I planted the vines in average garden soil. I have not fertilized the plants because I was told that fertilizing the plants they would not get very many blooms. The plants althought taking off quick just don't seem to be growing very fast like most people say they should. Should I fertilize them a little or not?

I've had this vine in red for years and it has not been invasive at all. Here in TN its a perennial and stays in its same spot every year and I do gather the seeds when they are ready to share with others. Wish I had it in white and in pink!

I'm growing this in a container on my 2nd floor front porch in the Boston MA area. I love the foliage and the flowers. I think the combination of the container planting and the cold climate will keep it in check, though I'll check out the front garden below (which can use some more foliage) next season. I'm looking forward to trying it out in some of my planted vivariums with my tropical geckos.

I first saw this plant about 12 years ago, growing outside of Lake Charles, LA. Its light and feathery foliage is a beautiful thing. I am now growing it in Pensacola, FL. Yes, it does spread rapidly (greatly infiltrated a huge azalea) but, in my opinion, it is very easy to manage! Simply pull unwanted seedlings out of the ground and they die quickly (kind of like Four O'Clocks here in the South!). I agree that controlling where they are growing is an excellent idea. I intend to put several pots of them on the front porch this year and hope they will provide a slight screen. We'll see!

Conflicting opinions between my husband and I. He HATES this very invasive vine and I absolutely love it! The flowers and vine itself are so delicate and sweet. Beautiful dainty flowers that attract hummingbirds galore. But it IS invasive without a doubt! It was threatening to take over our hibiscus, a bottlebrush shrub, and the porch! If YOU stand near it long enough you may find yourself encased in it. lol. You find it coming up everywhere. We've been argueing about having one at our new house and I WILL win but I will be smarter and take ev1's advice of potting it and using a trellis, AND also putting it away from all my other plants and anything I hold dear. That way we'll both be happy.

I bought this vine and planted it on a series of arches with grape and honeysuckle. It reseeded the second year and the third year took over the honeysuckle and killed it!!!! It outcompetes honeysuckle, which I thought was the most invasive vine here! The roots are shallow and easy to pull, but if you let it reseed, it will take over any plant! I didn't keep up with it and it killed 2 grapevines. It covers the plants fast! I love the lacy foliage and abundant flowers, but I am very sorry I introduced it! If you get it, put it somewhere it won't spread!

I'm growing this vine for the first time this year, got a late start but it's already blooming like crazy. I realize it is invasive, but I'm glad that it is--it's so sweet, I'd be perfectly happy to have a jungle of these delicate looking, bright/cheery flowers.

This is the prettiest most invasive vine I have ever seen .About ten years ago I saw this vine with its red blossoms gracefully growing around a mailbox in my parents neighborhood and immediately wanted it but never could find it .Having no idea this many years later my daughter would move into a house that had it growing around a lamp post. last summer I got a piece from her yard and it did ok This year I thought the winter had killed hers and mine .but to my pleasant surprise I saw it sprouting from a pot I had on the steps. I know its late in the season but I hope I can transplant it and be able to enjoy it before the summer/fall is over .

Hello..

My friends have these plants in her house, growing from the seeds he take from the wild. She has succesfull and give me some seeds.

It is a nice looking plants ^^

I dont think they are invasive, because it seems that they have limited age to became invasive. But the seeds are germinate easily. So. it would be a trouble if you got the seeds everywhere. But I dont think its a big problem here, because the competition are tought ^^

I thought having 1 or 2 of these around the fence would be pretty...I love the delicate look, and the bright flowers. HOWEVER, after only one year, this innocent, delicate looking vine has multiplied 50 times over, and has wrapped around my bananas, keeping the leaves from unfurling!!!! In summary, THIS IS EXTREMELY INVASIVE!!! It might be just fine in the cooler end of its zone spectrum, but I think I'll busy with a machete for a few years now.

Most invasive plant on the planet here--worst thing in the world to eradicate--and that's saying a lot when you also contend with nutgrass and bermuda grass. It should be added to the US invasive plants list--horrible stuff!

up here in zone 6 this plant thrives in just about any soil, i dont find it invasive but its probley because our cold winters keep it in check. its easy to grow and attracts lots of butterflies, as someone else mentioned- the flowers are kind of small , but the foiliage is nicer in my opinion compared to a morning glory. I have it controled to a small trellis and when it has overgrown the trellis by mid summer- i just cut it back to a few inches - and it will regrow again and bloom all over before winter hits, also cutting it back makes it a little easier to collect seed pods and stop it from seeding into the lawn. it does require some attention.

Loved the delicate fern-like foilage on this vine...not to mention the splashes of deep red. Hoping it will have reseeded on its own but if not this most certainly is a vine that will supply it's own seeds for following season - plus some to share!!! This is a very easy vine - takes care of itself practically. I'm thinking of growing it OVER a MG or Passi vine this year - should make for a nice effect.

Pros :
Amazingly red flowers in the summer.
Easy to grow if you water it often.
Climbs more than ten feet high.
Produces many seeds.
Attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.

Cons:
All growth, including seed development, halts at the first frost.
Looks plain ugly after frost.
Extremely hard to remove from bushes, so use an isolated trellis.

Pretty yes, but very, very invasive in south Texas. Once you plant it, you have it for life. And even if you don't plant it, you will find it coming up everywhere from neighbors, birds, animals, etc. I would not suggest planting it in south Texas.

I tried transplanting this plant from my Mom and Dad's house several times - then I just dug up a bunch of dirt that I knew it had seeded into - I put it on the north end of my house and it has taken off. It is really pretty, but, now I am having a problem with it taking over a couple of flower beds. I do love it - with its feathery foliage - it is very invasive - but still wouldn't want to get rid of it.

I live in northeast missouri, and i planted my cypress by seed in spring, about may 1st. it is now already august 16th and i still have no blooms. i only fertilized them when they were young, so overfertilization can be ruled out. the soil is also usually dry, a factor that increases bloom amount as well. although the vines are very vigorous they just don't seem to bloom. i also grew impomea tricolor and heavanly blue, which did pretty well, much better than the cypress. the tricolor had about 5 blooms a day and the heavanly blue has only 1 a day so far.

Finally my cypress bloomed on september 1st. but it took four months. next year, i will not use so much fertilizer when growing them. once they began to bloom, they slowly increased in number. they are very pretty, like tiny red umbrellas.

I have what looks to be this same plant only the leaves are different. The leaves on mine are not "frilly" or "lacey". I grow it on the rail of my deck and the hummingbirds love it. It DOES NOT reseed. I have to start the plants from seed if I want more. My Mom got one of the "frilly" kind by accident in a palm tree she bought last year. I kept the vine and seeds, so I'll see if it acts different.
Sadie

This is a very beautiful vine. The foliage alone is amazing, very light and feather. The flowers are quite gorgeous, too. The main issue I had with this plant is that if you leave it to its own devices, it will take over your garden and strangle a lot of the smaller plants. If you like to just throw some seeds in the ground and let your plants grow on their own, stay away from this one. Otherwise, it's amazing.

For me, it seems to flower frequently from early July straight up until winter. If you don't want it to reseed, or you want to collect the seeds, trim the pods before they dry (they will look almost like a tiny pepper when ripe). Each pod seems to contain 3 seeds, and I noticed that (for me) roughly one out of every four seeds sprouts, so it has the potential to quickly naturalize and become invasive if you don't take care of it.

A friend sent me seeds from Il. It's not real vigoris as I believe the nights are too cool for it to really thrive. Here it is Aug and not a bloom in sight. Also slow to germinate and only a quarter of the seeds came up. I started the seeds in mid May. We had 3 days of warm nights (over 60) and it took off but now the nights are back to 50 or less and it has slowed. If I get any seeds I will try again next season. the folage is very pretty.

I love this vine- I love the delicate fern-like leaves, I love that they flower, and I love them even more because they are overtaking the other yucky invasive vines! Maybe I won't have to pull out the other vines, if the cypress continues in this fashion & so kills them ::crossing fingers::

Since they were only planted this year, I have yet to see just how widespread/invasive they will become. I have some growing in a pot in the backyard, and that actually tends to need water at least every other day,or the vine wilts & yellows- most likely due to the strange weed that's trying to be a tree which I'm letting grow there for observation purposes for now.

This vine grows well in this area. At least, it does for my favorite "Aunt-in-law". Hers is grown in pots planted on either side of a trellis that I gave her for Christmas. It is full of blooms and the hummingbirds and bees are loving it. She shared seed with me from the vine she had last year and I stupidly planted it in the ground near a trellis and my chickens scratched up the seedlings. For this year, I will simply have to visit her more often to enjoy her success. Her zinnia bed is also beautiful (the chickens got into my zinnia seed as well) I'm still trying to figure out how to have both of the things I love grow freely (fowl and flower)

A close friend gave me the red variety of Cypress Vine and yes, she's still a good friend! I may reconsider in a few years once it gets REALLY established! : ) Still, it's a good choice for beauty and delicacy on trellises and fences if you want to attract h'birds and butterflies. I considered Trumpet Vine for about half a minute but didn't want to destroy my fence. My neighbors love it, too, thankfully, because they are getting a few vines, too. I hear my neighbor proudly showing her vines off to her friends. I think you either really like Cypress Vine or hate it... I grow this with Scarlet or Cardinal Climber which actually grows faster for me, if you can believe it ...

Cupid's Flower is another common name for this flower

Starts pretty fast from seed. Likes organicly rich soil. Fertalize often with a bloom booster fertalizer. Grows pretty fast, foliage and blooms breath taking.

I bought my seed from Ferry Morse which had the correct picture on the front, but named it Cardinal Climber Vine. This is my first year growing it, but in my zone (7B in southern North Carolina) it really thrives in the red clay with lots of moisture. I grew it on trellises outside my kitchen window and enjoyed watching all of the bees and hummers feeding on it. Its tropical looking foliage really added a new diminsion to my garden and I hope it will reseed next year (looks like there will be no problem there). To collect the seed, I spread fabric on the ground under the vine and shook it and collected a zillion seeds, so now I can share them. This one's a keeper for me.

I never planted this vine, and for several years I kept seeing it pop up all over the place; in fields, along roadsides, in masses along with native grape vines, and winding up into plants that I planted in my yard. I've spent hours pulling this weed from my yard. Sure humming birds love it, and after it is pollinated, the plant looks like a beautiful green fernish vine with whispy white raindrop tips. However, it reseeds horribly and we have them everywhere all over and I am forever pulling them up yet again before they strangle my flowerbed. Agghhh! Who started this nightmare?

Fast growing vine with masses of Crimson flowers. Ideal for Xeriscaping - thrives even when neglected.

If I had a nickel for every time this plant was mixed up
with Cardinal Climber. Sigh.

Cypress Vine has a light and airy, almost fern-like foliage.
The seeds look, quite frankly, like mouse droppings.

Cardinal Climber has larger foliage on which the leaf structure
is significantly wider. The seeds resemble typical Morning
Glory seeds.

Thanks for letting me get that out. I feel better. :-)

If given the chance, this light and airy vine will cover a trellis without fail. This beauty should be given room to grow without restriction, and not a good choice for those who demand tidy order in a small garden space.

Room to grow and a gentle breeze - what a sight in full force.
One I allow to seed freely for the following season.

I love this vine. All the birds, bees, and butterflies love it. My husband says it is out of control.

A 'volunteer' has recently sprouted (2 weeks) in a planter. It is only 20 inches long, and is already in flower! I haven't even seen any around here, so one of the birds must have 'dropped it'!

One of the easiest I've ever grown, but then it has a mind of it's own once established. I only plant about 3 seeds at a time, because I know it'll take off. I also make it a point to catch all the seed I can so the thing won't eat up my yard next year. Any volunteers not wanted are pulled or shot down with Round-Up. I love the way it fills a fence without the heavy look of big leaves.

I found a mixed package of seeds in my drawer, planted them near my porch and up pops this vine. I never knew what it was til now. It hasn't bloomed yet, it receives morning sun and partial afternoon sun and it grows like a weed.

Right now it is tied to my porch ralling until I get some sort of trellis. I'm beginning to wonder if it's going to look like a giant bean stalk!!!!! I do like it though.

Way too invasive for me, it wraps and chokes and meanders it's way all through a garden bed, making it a nightmare to catch when weeding.......never, never, never let it go to seed in your garden; or this demon will haunt you forever!!

While the flowers are pretty, here in central Florida the vine is too invasive and fast growing to keep in the garden. It tends to cover and choke out all the plants near it. The vine showed up as a volunteer in my garden several years ago and I have not been able get rid of it since.

A very invasive, difficult to rid of vine, but it makes up for everything due to its appearence.

Beautiful vine that the Hummers/Butterflies adore.Can be invasive if not kept up. Birds scatter seeds. Too much of the wrong fertilizer will prevent blooms and encourage foliage. Douse it every once in a while with miracle grow or another flowering fertilizer.

I've never had much success with this plant flower wise. Yes it does have flowers on it but never alot and I never see them open, they're closed at all times of the day. I have never seen it early morning though so that may be why.

The foliage is very attractive and it has a nice vining habit.

Love, love, love this vine, yes it goes everywhere, but it doesn't kill or choke anything and it's so fringy and lacy and delicate. I never collect seeds unless i just want to spread it to a different area, it self sows itself and arrives the very next spring.

Invasive, but easy to pull out. It has a puny root system as a seedling, unlike wild Morning Glory or Peppervine. The feathery foliage is nice on a trellis and doesn't constrict like some other vines. I've never had any problem with it killing other plants. It grows wild here in coastal Alabama.
Loxley, Alabama, USA - Zone 8b.

I LOVE this vine! A lot of my attraction to a particular plant is its history. I got my first "hummingbird vine" from my now 96 year old gardening aunt. It was growing out of a crack in the asphalt of her driveway! I cover several areas of my fence with it and have planted it in with the jasmine that blooms much earlier. I live in central Georgia. Yes, it can be invasive, but what an invader!!!

I have the same problem, Purplepetunia. The seedlings come up everywhere. I pot some up for people who ask for them, but warn them that once planted, these determined little devils are going to find their way into every nook and cranny. Mostly, I pull them like weeds; however, my husband loves them, and I leave a few... so that I can continue this process over and over again.

before I heard of this plant, I bought two small vines from a gardener at the flea market. Now I can't get rid of them. After three years, they are coming up EVERYWHERE, even between stones. I, along with the hummers and butterflies like the red flowers. It is a pretty vine, but can be invasive after a couple of years.

We attained some seeds from this plant that a friend of ours had. It grow so quickly, and the foliage is so beautiful and delicate. The flowers are small but bright and very pretty, and hummingbirds love them. It has not become invasive at all, and I have collected a bunch of seeds off of them and can't wait to plant them again next year!

I take pride in seeing this beautiful Hummingbird Vine. It grows extremely well in Zone 8. It attracts a variety of butterflies and hummingbirds. The delicate fern like foliage grows gracefully along trellis, arbors, fences and archways. Vine has a countless amount of hot pink star blooms that are absolutely breathtaking! Best growth in full sun. Plant from seed/s after last frost, be patient... give it support to establish a climbing pattern. Fast Growing. Non-invasive roots. A true delight! Please gather seeds at the end of its cycle for re-growing new vines and dried foliage can be collected as an elegant moss.

I ordered a "Hummingbird Vine" from a catalogue and received a small plant. This was three years ago and the first year it barely grew, and produced no flowers. The second year it got fuller but still no flowers.

This year it's taking off like crazy but still no flowers. I wish I knew why; from the pictures I saw it looked like the leaves of this vine.

About six years ago I saw this plant growing in wine barrel planters (without irrigation) in Seaside, Florida (U.S.) and I was intrigued! I collected some seeds and put them in at my house (down the coast a bit from Seaside) The plants grew and did extremely well.

The hummingbirds loved it and butterflies came, too. I saved seeds and gave them to friends :) I didn't need to save them because it readily reseeds - everywhere. Now, years later new seedlings still pop up - everywhere. Still, it's adorable - and easy to pull out where you don't want it.

If you love growing vines, then this is the ideal vine for growing on trellises, arbors or fences. It even can be trained to climb up a string tied to a tree branch or the eaves of your house, but any way you grow Ipomoea quamoclit (not I. multifida or I. x sloteri, which it is often confused for) it requires some training and the ideas are endless.

The hummingbirds absolutely love it, butterflies fawn over it and bumble bees help pollinate it! We've created an entirely new color this year and can't wait to harvest seeds from it. The flowers are pink with deep red stripes radiating outwards from the center! To all those who think this vine is a weed, then you just don't enjoy growing vines period :-)

MountainMeadowSeeds.com

I received this plant from an uncle in central Kentucky. I have been thrilled and amazed by it and its survival instinct, even this far north (USDA Zone 5). It has grown within the back side of my vegetable garden on a fence for several years now. It stays within its own space and manages to return every year without fail, even after being tilled deep into the garden each spring.

It may be considered a noxious weed much farther south, but here it is a wonderful, obiediant plant with many beautiful flowers. I have neighbors who admire it each year when it blooms, and I intend to keep it always.

In central Illinois, it comes up in mid-summer (late in the growing season for most plants), but grows fast enough for me to be enjoying the blooms in August, when most all other flowers are a done deal for the year. It adds a wonderful appeal to my late season garden - I give this little vine an AAA+

Very pretty, but super invasive here.

There continues to be confusion between "Cypress Vine" and "Cardinal Climber" (see the database entry for this). The blooms are quite similar, but the leaves are very different. This confusion is not helped by some seed companies who sell Cardinal Climber under the Cypress Vine taxonomic name. Buyer beware.

This little vine grows readily in northcentral Florida (zone 8b) and will self-seed readily, but has not become invasive so far. Not as many flowers this year due to our excessively cloudy and rainy summer. A friend pointed out to me that her plants have a finer foliage than mine, but the small red tubular flowers are the same. So there are probably several similar plants going around under the same common name.

Saw this one last year on a fence and it was stunning! So when I saw seeds this year I bought some and I planted them...wow! They are great. I hate to hear they are invasive... but I am in zone 7... maybe not here. (I hope!) Easy to grow from seed. Great to cover something fast.

Although it has gorgeous flowers and interesting pinnate-lobate leaves, itīs listed as invasive in Brazil. The one I took the picture has seedlings invading all the pots around it, climbing on the roses. Worth a try, I say, in containers - if you donīt let the fruits to ripen.

I have had this plant for several years and since it has never bloomed I tried to kill it and it will NOT go away.

I planted seeds in a pot and added a trellis. The plants seemed to grow inches by the day. The hummers loved them. I live in West Texas and get excited when I can get anything to grow.

I ordered a package of cypress vine seeds expecting it to look like the pictures above, but what's growing looks like Cardinal Climber (see other entry). The foliage is entirely different. My flowers haven't started blooming yet, but mine looks more like a pentagon than the star that the others do.

How can I tell in future which I'm getting if they both have the same names (including scientific names)?

Editor's note: the botanical names are Ipomoea quamoclit (Cypress Vine) and Ipomoea x multifida (Cardinal Climber)

This vine was fantastic last year on my fences. I saved hundreds of seeds, put them in a film canister, and I'm ready to plant them on my new privacy fences.

Here in Hardeeville, South Carolina, in the Low Country, I never saw this plant until two years after hurricane "Hugo" in September, 1989. After the storm, it showed up in a cow pasture up the road. I took a piece and loved the way it covered the back of the shed, the fence, and arbor at the fence. One season and I have to keep pruned to maintain the area from being overgrown, but it is beautiful in the right application. I was told by a landscape designer that it had not been in our area until after "Hugo", and I was the sixth person to bring a piece to her.

Living in northern California, I had never seen this species and tried it from seed. Our spring was cold and summer not much better, but the regular Ipomoea ("Morning Glory") vines were thriving. My three "Cypress Vines" were puny and feathery, almost invisible on the wood trellises. The flowers are pretty, but very tiny, and the bees/hummingbirds ignore them for other, larger flowers. Very disappointing.

Maybe it's because I've never had success trying to raise this plant from seed, but I'm not crazy about it - if you ever do get it established you'll have it forever :(

This makes a nice plant to cover an ugly fence, dead tree, or other eye-sore in a naturalized, out of the way area. That way it is allowed to spread without intruding on your garden.

I stopped at a roadside greenhouse and marveled at the delicate, lacy vine with the bright red flowers. When I found out from the owner that hummingbirds loved this plant which she called 'hummingbird vine', I had to have this specimen. She simply pulled a piece out of the ground which I immediately planted once I got home. WOW -- gorgeous and, not only to hummingbirds love this vine, but bees and butterflies as well. And, the great news, you can collect the seeds once the pods have dried on the plant to sow in coming years. Also, be aware that this plant will self-sow. Mine is already growing again this year and I haven't put a seed in the ground yet! Great vine!

Easy to grow, this vigorous 12 to 25' vine is simply covered with 3/4" blooms for 3 to 4 months! It's lacy, fernlike foliage is quite elegant. Grows in almost any soil. Wonderful hummingbird attractant!