Take a look at these photos of one of the newest bonsai trees in my collection. This Trumpet Vine will one day become a tree with a very thick trunk and many vibrant trumpet shaped flowers.
This vine is the most invasive species I have ever encountered. I have been actively working to remove it from growing through the lawn for the past three or four years.
It has a habit of forming deep hidden underground tunnels. It might travel for 6 feet, 10 feet, even 12 feet before it surfaces into a new sucker sprout on the surface. Usually it tries to find a host tree, so it can strangle the trunk and roots. It climbs on other plants to quickly reach the sunlight, and then it grows vigorously. Eventually the vines strangle and kill the host plant it has used. That is why I call the Trumpet Vine The Strangler or The Assassin.
Last year I did the unthinkable.
I saved a small 8 inch cutting from part of a root that I dug up, and I planted it into this cheap black pot. My plan was to give it the worst treatment of all of my bonsai trees, and watch and see how well this vine can do when kept imprisoned in a small space.
No surprise, it found ways to extend beyond the reaches of that confined space, and now it is weaving its way between the many innocent bonsai trees nearby.
ID: 0025
Nickname: Gmork, The Strangler, The Assassin Vine, Servant of The Nothing
Type: Trumpet Vine
Age: 1 year
Grown: #yamadori (I cut it from the root where it was growing as a sucker weed)
Last repotting: Never
Wired: Never
Twisted: Double loop knot designed in July 2019.
Early this year, as the vine started growing, I wound it up into a double circle knot. One circle very open, and the other got bent into two corners.
Yet, the tip of the vine continued to grow onward.
The vine grows from a single stem, extending onward with as much energy as it can muster to the end. Along the vine, each inter-node forms a pair of leaves. If anything should happen to the distant stem tip, then new stems will form from between the next closest pair of leaves, to quickly recover from the loss as if nothing happened.
No matter the abuse this plant undergoes, I could probably twist it around five more times into a noose, and it will still push its evil growth energies outward as if nothing was wrong.
This tree, even in its infancy reminds me about some lessons about life.
Evil has no boundaries.
Evil will extend to any lengths necessary to achieve its goals.
I know what this plant is capable of. I have seen the damage it can do. Even though I cannot see it, I know it is still living somewhere hidden in my yard, waiting for the right moment to make its next move. It won't reveal itself until the damage has already been done. The effort to repair the damage is always at a far greater expense than the simplicity of the quick destruction it can muster.
There are people in this world who seem to be wholly evil in nature. We call them sociopaths, because they seem to have no regard for the feelings, morals, and ethics of other nearby people and societies. Even when growing up in a loving family, living in a friendly town, and surrounded by good friends, a truly evil person can still be hiding in plain sight plotting unimaginable atrocities. They need not derive inspiration from other evil doers, because their mind is a seed filled with thoughts incapable of producing anything that isn't tainted in darkness.
This is a Trumpet Vine growing on a trellis at a park. It looks like paradise, especially when the hummingbirds arrive to drink the sweet nectar of the flowers. Landscapers who built this park made cement walls to imprison the roots, to prevent them from spreading. Also some species are easier to maintain than others, and certain invasive species should never be planted, because they will find other ways to spread even beyond hard barriers.
The bigger question is, what do you do when you encounter such a person?
Do you run? Do you scold them? Do you warn your friends to avoid them? Do you attack them? Do you report them to the police?
None of these things will ultimately stop a truly evil, powerful, sociopath. Especially ones who have combined forces with other like-minded individuals to form a sick, and twisted cult, to perform evil acts for their own entertainment and pleasure.
An example of the devastation this vine once wrought on an innocent maple tree. You would never know my delicate vine sprung from the same root.
At best, I believe the best thing we can do is investigate them. Shine line on their activities. Make people aware. Even though normal, good people are disgusted by conversations about what these people have done, and might even deny that any person could do what these evil people are accused of, it still must be said. Reality must sink in, before it is too late. Evil must be arrested, incarcerated, and in some cases eradicated to prevent further atrocities from happening.
The root of all evil is connected in more ways than we realize. I had to dig trenches two feet down to remove these rope sized roots tunneling under the surface of the lawn. Look at the devil forks these roots design. Horrible! For months our lawn looked like a wasteland. I was blamed for destroying the beauty of the grass by digging them out, but was it really my fault? What further damage might these roots have done if allowed to remain?
And yet...
Here I am showcasing a plant capable of doing great harm, that I have imprisoned like a circus freak. I understand the wild nature of this plant, and I keep it in check. I do not blame it for the chaotic instincts it has, and I recognize the beauty of the flowers and twisted shapes it can weave. Nature designed this wild beast with certain hungering instincts in mind. It is part of the circle of life. Yet I, in my own wisdom, deem to control it and allow it exist. Perhaps someone will see this article, and decide to plant a Trumpet Vine in their own yard, and infect their neighbors with expensive damage and frustration for years to come, sowing the seeds of discord and animosity capable of turning friends into enemies.
Who knows what my actions might one day lead to? This evil is contained for now in a black plastic prison, but it is not finished finding ways to extend beyond its visible reach.
Forgive me for what I have done. I know not what I do.
These are the last of the large vines I dug up years ago. Thankfully, this year most of the roots I have found in the yard are no bigger than a pencil. It is a lot easier to weed out the smaller roots that return every year now that the largest roots are permanently gone.
Other articles featuring this tree:
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