Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

First, we would like to apologize for the delay in replying to your question. It apparently went to some other portion of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website, sat in an Inbox for several days and then finally made it to the Mr. Smarty Plants question page. In future, you will get faster service (hopefully) if you start with the Ask Mr. Smarty Plants page. Or you can access Mr. Smarty Plants from the wildflower.org home page.

Having said all that, we are not sure we can help you. Campsis radicans (Trumpet creeper) is definitely native to Worcester Co., MA, as you can see from this USDA Plant Profile Map. We try to check on this first thing, because if you wish to plant, for instance, a distinctly tropical or sub-tropical plant in a cold northern area, it probably is not going to work, and sometimes that gives us our answer quickly. However, that is obviously not the case in this situation.

Please follow this plant link ,Campsis radicans (Trumpet creeper) to our webpage on this plant which will tell you everything we know about this plant. You were probably on the right track when you identified the problem as transplant shock, but that may have already been happening before you ever purchased it from the nursery. If it was a leftover at the end of the season, it may already have been suffering from one of several problems, including poor drainage, which would cause the roots to rot, or the wrong soil in the nursery pot, or lack of sunlight while it waited in the nursery. This generally is a very healthy, easy-to-grow plant to the point of being invasive, especially in the Southeast. In Massachusetts, it will definitely be deciduous and by now be already dormant.

So, the next question is: what next? Without knowing which, if any, of our suggestions might be the reason for the deterioration of the plant, we can suggest that you trim it back, leaving enough stem that you can find it again in the Spring. It is very cold tolerant, so we don't think you need worry about cold while the plant is dormant.

Or, after you read some of the 64 negative comments on trumpet creeper on this Dave's Garden forum site, you might count yourself very lucky if the stuff dies. In the future, we would suggest planting perennials in the season opposite to the blooming season for that plant, in this case, July to September, which would mean planting as soon as the soil warms up in the early Spring.