Morning Glories: Morning Glories 2006 #4, 1 by atenkley

atenkley wrote:
Joseph and Ron, I'll chime in here!

This past year I grew Minibar Rose, Beni Chidori, Cameo Elegance, Q0777, Sunsmile Pink, Carol strain White, Spring, and seed labeled Kodachi strain. All grew pretty much side by side. The seed sources for each were different.

There are at least two different genetic "dwarfs" going on with these. The Minibar Rose, Beni Chidori, Q077 and Cameo Elegance all had the same growth habit - the whole plant being generally much smaller than normal. They could climb, but not well. All their flowers were pink with various white margins - except the Beni Chidori that I grew had virtually no white margin. They all had the normal 'Ivy shaped" leaves but were much smaller than normal plants and the variegtion was concentrated into a clearer pattern than often seen on normal variegated leaves. The Japanese call these plants "Princess" plants and label the variegation as "Crystal". The Q0777 strain is cataloged as carrying the "hime" gene for dwarfism. Joseph, I think your plant is of this group.

The second group of "dwarfs" are the Kodachi type plants and carry the "dw" gene which basically shortens the internodeal growth, making the stems of normal diameter, but shorter and thus stiffer. Mine grew on the ground and the branches spread about 3 feet from the main stem. The leaves on the strains that I grew were all dragonfly, being elongated in the center lobe and basically of normal size. All had normal type variegation except the Carol strain which had green leaves. The flowers of plants carrying the dw gene often have a "star" shape, similar to the Kikiyou or plants sometime labeled Picotee. They are maybe a bit smaller than normal flowers, but definitely not dwarf and fine featured like the above group.

My picture of 8/12 is of this last group. The picture posted here is of Sunsmile Pink and Carol White. You can see the "star" characteristic on the Carol White bloom.

These are my observations! - Arlan