I want to plant a showy, pretty flowering vine that will attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Wanting something not too invasive. Central Texas. Any suggestions?

Audubon.org has a section for that sort of thing.

C

Where are you putting it? On a pergola, fence,etc? I've got an invasive vine called trumpet vine on my pergola that they love and it cant go anywhere else. I've also got wisteria and cross vine. Cross vine is native to Texas and is related to trumpet vine not is not nearly as aggressive.

SharkinAg said:

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Where are you putting it? On a pergola, fence,etc? I've got an invasive cine called trumpet vine on my pergola that they love and it can go anywhere else. I've also got wisteria and cross vine. Cross vine is native to Texas and is related to trumpet vine not is not nearly as aggressive.

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I'm going to plant it on a fence

We have cross vine on our back fence and will usually bloom twice a year but I'm not sure if hummingbirds like it.

We've got a huge trumpet vine on our pergola and fence that they love; they prefer it to every other flower we've planted.

Crossvine, coral honeysuckle, Texas wisteria and passionvine (last two are more butterfly attractant than hummingbirds) are good native options.

Trumpetvine would work great but it is horribly invasive and takes over the world. Never plant it near your house. Japanese honeysuckle is another great hummingbird option and is more prolific at flowering than coral honeysuckle, but is also very invasive.

Not a vine, but firebush. Our hummers loved it. They would fight over it though....one would go high in the air and dive bomb the other ones.

Kudzu

Mr. AGSPRT04 said:

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Kudzu

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Evil!

Coral honeysuckle and Crossvine are the two I would choose if I was specifically trying to attract hummingbirds. Crossvine is more aggressive spreading, but neither would be overly invasive to the garden area around them if given something to climb/train on. Passionflower vine can be very aggressive spreading to other garden and lawn areas depending on the variety you get. If you aren't willing to spend time cutting it back and chasing it out of places you don't want it growing, I would avoid passionflower vine. The native variety is less invasive, but is harder to find. Good vine for Gulf Coast Fritillary butterflies, but at least my experience with the non-native version has been like trying to get rid of peppervine in the yard/gardens.

My recommendation would be crossvine, trumpet creeper, and coral honeysuckle. All are natives and are attractive to not only hummingbirds but other pollinators as well.

thanks for all the recommendations.

When is best time to plant? Winter when dormant?

Either early fall or early spring would be my choice. Depending in what zone you are in, the honeysuckle can be close to evergreen, but most of the time all three will go dormant in winter. You want it in early enough to establish some before it freezes in fall or before it gets too hot and dry in spring.

Trumpet creeper is good, but it can be very aggressive in how far it will spread and climb. So be ready to work on containing it a bit if you don't want it going everywhere.

I've been meaning to look up what Neil Sperry said. He'd mentioned a "less invasive" trumpetvine recently. Here it is:

Answer: That's the problem with trumpetcreepers (more commonly called trumpetvines). The native form is extremely invasive. It will send up root sprouts as much as 20 to 30 feet from the mother plant. The dilemma is that the chemicals you use to kill the sprouts will also harm the mother plant. If you could sever their connecting roots that tie them to Mama, then treat just the leafy sprouts, you could eliminate them without harming the original plant. Use a broadleafed weedkiller spray to kill any part of the trumpetcreeper that you wish to eliminate. For the record, the larger-flowering selection called Madame Galen is less invasive and more attractive than the native one.

Maybe OP can keep it potted?

There are apparently quite a few claims that the hummingbirds don't like the 'madame galen' variety because it doesn't produce much nectar.

https://www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=1986

That is the problem with some of the hybridized cultivars, they are breeding for other characteristics besides nectar production.

Thanks for the feedback. I have the other, more invasive kind.