It’s a desert around here and things don’t grow well unless you water and fertilize the hell out of them. And protect them from the sun. We’ve lost several landscape plants this year because of the excessive solar radiation and summer heat.

But there’s one plant that the rules don’t apply to. The grand champion of desert hardiness: the trumpet vine or trumpet creeper, Campsis radicans.

We buried our original plant under concrete when we expanded our patio. No problem, the trumpet vine simply moved over a few feet and found some sun and re-appeared on the southwest corner of the house! It is thriving there, producing spectacular displays of tubular orange flowers. And we don’t water it. It survives on its own.

We like volunteers. This one is native to North America, but east of the Mississippi. It’s a weed in most places back there. Here in the West we have a lot of garden cultivars bred for hardiness. I have to say those plant nerds really pulled it off!

Another trumpet vine volunteered in another spot on the house and it is thriving as well. And speaking of volunteers the flowers attract Anna’s hummingbirds. We get to watch them fly and feed for free. They chatter and dive bomb each other. It’s quite a show.

Hummingbirds are tough, too. We were once chased out of a camping spot in the Mojave desert many years ago by a determined duo of what I think were Black-chinned hummers. They kept buzzing us until we moved a few yards away from a particular clump of shrubs. Then we all got along.

It’s hot and dry out there. Take care of yourselves.