Campsis x tagliabuana Summer Jazz Gold

Campsis x tagliabuana Summer Jazz® Gold® is part of a series of hybrid Trumpet Vines selected for their very compact growth, perfectly suited for small spaces but also for container cultivation on sunny terraces and balconies. 'Gold', as its name suggests, offers large clusters of beautiful golden yellow trumpets, finely veined with blood orange at the throat, throughout the summer and almost along its entire height. Resolutely different, this yellow Trumpet Vine is also distinguished by its long, deeply cut leaves, a bright and light green that turns a beautiful golden hue in autumn before falling.

Campsis x tagliabuana is a plant from the Bignoniaceae family, resulting from the cross-breeding between Campsis radicans, native to the hot and dry regions of the southeastern United States, and Campsis grandiflora, native to China. Obtained around 1850 in the Tagliabue nursery near Milan, it possesses the excellent hardiness of its American parent and the strong tendrils and large spectacular flowers of its Asian ancestor.

The cultivar Summer Jazz Gold ('Takarazuka Yellow') belongs to the Summer Jazz Trumpet Vine series, developed in Japan in the city of Takarazuka during the years 2007-2008. The plants in this series, perfectly cold-resistant, are characterised by a very compact habit and a fairly exceptional flowering, which appears near the base of the plant and along almost its entire height.

This small deciduous climber with fairly slow growth has a very bushy habit and will not exceed 3m (10ft) in all directions after many years. Its growth is also easily contained by regular pruning. The abundant and generous flowering of 'Summer Jazz Gold' occurs from the first years of cultivation. It starts in July in average climates, sometimes as early as June in mild climates, and continues until September. The flowers bloom in the axils of the leaves, in clusters measuring up to 30 cm (12in), sometimes with up to 60 trumpet-shaped flowers measuring 7 to 8 cm (3in) long. Each flower has a tube that opens into 5 lobes. Their colour evolves from bright yellow to a warmer golden yellow, shaded with apricot. The throat of the flower, more orange and traversed by fine veins of a reddish orange, is occupied by short arching stamens. The deciduous foliage, a fairly light green, is composed of large leaves reaching 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16in) in length, finely cut into 11 to 15 lanceolate leaflets with crenate edges. The autumn foliage, particularly bright in this Summer Jazz Gold variety, displays a beautiful golden yellow colour. It is its tendrils that allow the plant to cling to its support.

Campsis x tagliabuana 'Summer Jazz Gold' finds its place in all gardens, even the smallest ones, and confidently invites itself onto any sunny patio. Of modest stature, shaped by regular pruning, it will become an extraordinary bush in the middle of a flower bed, becoming the focal point of a small garden. It can be used everywhere, to dress up a wall sheltered from cold winds, an unsightly building, a fence, a pillar, or a gnarled small tree. Its tendrils take over this providential structure, covering its forms with a lush green mane brilliantly flowering for 3 months. Perennials or small bushes such as violet, blue, and fuchsia pink shrubby salvias, a Ceratostigma with small unreal blue flowers, daylilies, mauve and blue small-flowered asters, and variegated Euphorbia can be planted at its base. The spectacle is magical from July to September. For example, you can associate it with other climbing plants such as Sollya heterophylla, a sky blue annual morning glory (Heavenly Blue), or the Clematis H F Young, a very blue variety, to create a colourful scene.