Ipomoea pandurata

I have never seen a Pandy in the wild here. I didn't even know
there was a perennial Morning Glory. Yours is very pretty Jackie.

Jackie's Pandy is the most beautiful plant I have ever seen, as far as wild morning glorys go. The ones in the wild are always tangled up in other stuff, mostly poison Ivy.

Thank you Linda and Debra

Debra, No pandy's growing on my drive to town. My sister who lives
in Vilonia tells me that she knows where one lone vine is growing
between Jacksonville and Vilonia. So they're not rampant out this way.
Will be interesting to see how your sds do. It will help us learn more about this wonderful species.

I don't know if I remember reading this correctly, but I thought I read somewhere that Pandy's were a protected species in at least one state. Is that true? Anyone know?

Jackie - I definitely want a few seeds from you! :-)

Becky, I hope that's true that pandy is protected in at least one state.
It needs to be protected everywhere. I've got seeds put back for you, Helena, Debra, Marie
and anyone else who asked for them.
If anyone else wants a few, please dmail me so I can track requests.

Dmail me too, as I am not sending them out this year in the swap. ( If you want a Kansas Strain)

Jackie - On the USDA Plant Profile website: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=IPPA

I. pandurata is considered an endangered species in New York and a threatened species in Michigan. But on the other hand, it is considered a Noxious Weed in Arkansas and prohibited in Arizona.

Interesting, huh?

Yes very interesting since it's difficult to find here.

Jackie, If you have few seeds to spare, I would love some.
Can send you postage.

Linda

Jackie,

One of the pandy seeds germinated!!!! the one from last year, it just started to emerge out of the soil, the cotyledons do not show yet. The other 3 seeds I put in have not yet, but, I dug around the soil and they look like they are still healthy, not rot.. so it is looking good for them also.

We should see some growth in them in a couple of days I hope.

Thank you so much!
A.

That's exciting A. Please keep us posted.

I forgot to answer Linda's request here, will be sending her pandy sds too.

Way to go, A! I hope to get a pandy vine growing here eventually, too!

Here is not very good photo, I was in such a hurry, but, I'll take more when the cotyledons open up more in a couple of days.

The second cup has another one coming up.. you can see the seed coat protruding a little.

Aww that is great! I was hoping to see some cots of those. Thanks, A!

You're welcome... I'll post more photos when they open a little more.

Looking good A.

Thank you Jackie.. I've got a good feeling about these.

The two seedlings have started to vine and the other two seeds rotted. These two that did take off have a couple of true leaves each already.

A.

Keeping everything crossed A. :-)

Jackie, the two babies are doing well, I'm thinking of putting them into the bonsai pots for the winter and see what happens, I figure if they have tuberous roots, they should be fine inside in small pots till Spring comes around.

Jackie and Deborah, have your's started losing any leaves yet? Please post when they do if you don't mind, that way I know mine will start doing that too. I'm hoping maybe I can keep one as a bonsai and see if it performs like I. platensis.

A.

A Bonsai pandy! That sounds like a great idea, Antoinette! Do keep us posted. I might try that myself. I wonder if I could do that with the I. albivenia that I am currently growing. It is developing a nice sized caudex. Does this plant require deep roots to survive?

You should see all my vines now! They are doing unbelievably well. Who would've guessed I could grow vines indoors under lights! This is so much better right now than being outdoors with the diseases and bugs! The only down side I see is the fact that they are taking a whole lot longer to bloom indoors! My I. purpureas that were sowed at the same time are already blooming outside. So ... I am sure the wait will be well worth it to have healthy I. nils!

You bet, Becky, try it with the Albiviena or any other caudex type, you have to bring them indoors? I do, so now I can try them in small pots and not take over the whole house..lol I got all my fat bodies I ordered and they are all indoors and look great, so I am keeping the pandy in one and will probably pot that up in a bonsai pot today or tomorrow, depending on when we get back this afternoon.

I finally got two blooms on the indoor growout, and there are only a couple of buds on maybe two more plants. I agree with you, they sure are taking long to bloom and even with bloombooster, they are not flushes. This is a great experiment and so much to discover. Yes, they are so healthy too, I want to start some closer to spring and then take them outdoors nice and healthy, maybe then the bugs don't have as much of chance to get to them or the diseases for that matter since they will be stronger.

Talking about the two blooms I did get, they both had reversed tubes and I'll take some photos after I get off the computer.. yesterday they looked like they were having trouble opening up and the stamens were sticking right out of the buds, but this morning, I found out why, the tubes were inverted... They look great though, like little plates with the centers puffed out.. and lace around the whole thing...lol very dainty looking. Like little girls ready for Sunday...

A.

Oh! Cool! Do post some photos of those new blooms! I can't wait to see what they look like!

My indoor MGs are really bushy right now. I will be potting them all up in the 32 oz. cups and lowering the shelves. I made enough trellises for all of them! This is so much more fun than I ever expected! I can't wait to see blooms on mine, too!

Yes, it is so much fun, like gardening all year round really. In the comforts of warmth..lol, we have not had our heat turned on yet, so at night it gets brisk indoors and you can see that they don't like it. Mine are not as healthy as they should be, something is bothering them and I don't know what it is. They just are sulking all the time. I've lost about 1/2 of them.. I glad that I did not start any rare seeds only the ones I wanted to cross and I have more of those, so I'm not too disappointed. But, still all that work involved as far as time goes too.

A - I am very careful how much I water them. I actually wait until they look a little wilted before I water. I also add hydrogen peroxide to the water I use, to prevent fungus. I am really worried about root rot. It is still pretty warm here, so the temps at night indoors have not dropped. It's cozy in the green room right now. And all the vines seem very happy! LOL! Sorry to hear that you have lost about half of your vines. That still leaves you with 50? I've only got 29 growing indoors right now. LOL! I can't imagine having too many more than that! LOL! I can't wait till they start blooming. I definitely want to do some crossing also!

A, My pandy was looking pretty rough with the Milky Way trying to choke it out so I
went ahead and cut it back along with the Milky Way. It was dying back anyway since
we had already had lows down in the 40's. I mainly wanted to get rid of the MW
before it dropped tons of sds.
Sorry you've lost so many, must be the cooler temps

My pandy tuber is inside with the seeds from my outing in the same pot, sitting in the morning glory area. It still has a few leaves, but it seems to be going dormant.

Debra,
I wish I knew if it's the shorter day length that makes pandy go dormant rather than
the cool nites. Maybe being inside it won;t stay dormant as long since it's nice and warm in your basement. Keep us posted. Will be anxious to see when it resumes growth. Maybe, just maybe, yours might bloom this coming summer like Blue's did.

Debra & Jackie, I have another MG that died back last winter, but then made new growth this past Summer: I. macrorhiza. So, I'm guessing it might be perennial. If so, then there's a good chance Debra's pandy will return, too, which is definitely perennial.

All my MG species are doing well (no blooms, though) in the same small styrofoam cups in which they were originally sown a couple of years ago - bad potted MG mommy, I know - but if you're a better potted MG mommy than I am, then maybe you can be more confident that your potted MG will return in the spring. This is definitely a case of don't do what I do, but don't despair, either, if you do lol

In my garden, pandy is one of the last perennial plants to appear in the spring, so keep an eye on your trowel - not a good tool for the absent-minded in spring before everything has emerged. Maybe just keep it barely moist during its winter dormancy.

Since I sowed my pandy from the one seed that Ron very kindly sent in 2006, it has been getting bigger and bigger each year - but fine for the arbor it shares with summer jasmine and other vines. It first flowered in 2008 (if my memory is working - don't think it did in 2007), and the flowers have been more and more abundant each year and so gorgeous. Except! this year grrr. Tons and tons of flower buds from June into September this year, but most of them fell off. hmpf.

Could it be the shade which has increasingly been gobbling up my garden thanks to monster silver maple and mulberry on the property next door? Will be interested to hear what y'all have to say about this. Meanwhile, a tree service is scheduled to come out in a couple of weeks and hack back the mulberry to where it crosses the property line. It's growing low and horizontally about 35' across our 50' wide property like duck weed on a smothered pond surface. double hmpf.

Karen-blue, a disgruntled Pandy gardener

ps - ouch to A's MG losses, but your experiments are always fascinating. The bonsai pandy sounds interesting, because it has such a will to cover real estate. I can't imagine trying to bonsai I. indica, which tried to take over a good bit of our hill side this summer, even from it's meager, small styrofoam cup. I must give it better care in the future if I want to see flowers, though.

macrorhiza is another one that probably can be done as a bonsai plant, that has a nice tuber, I wish I had tried that a few years ago, I lost the plants anyway. They have even made some bonsai plants from wisteria, pine trees, etc.. I've seen the stem on some of those indica plants, you never know, it may be possible, since it has the will to live.

My dh was looking out the kitchen window in such wonder, he wasn't even listening to me, so I asked him what he was looking at and he "I'm chuckling as I write this" say's to me that the Mexican Elder Tree bloomed and it has this purple flowers... he was looking at the I. indica flowers on the tree and you can't see the vine climbing up the tree because it went up one side. He said he thought he was seeing things..out there..lol, finally I told him it was the dreaded vine he killed in CA every time he saw it. Too funny, now I have to be making sure he doesn't kill this one here in NM, it is not invasive at all here. It struggles to survive in this dry zone.

Karenblue, I too have one of those Mulberry trees with a canopy that reaches all the way over into Texas..lol, It was trimmed last year and it almosts appears to have gotten even wider this year. I love the shade though. It is full of doves right now, I don't know if we will cut anything off till winter is almost over, unless the doves go live near the irrigation canals for theh winter, then maybe we can trim this tree sooner.

I did buy a special bonsai pot for a really strange sport I got on another plant, and got a couple more bonsai plants for the living room. This is the person that hates plants indoors mind you, here I am with at least 100 of them indoors as I type. They will all go outside for 6 months and inside 6 months, that I can take (I think). Plus the mg seedlings, they don't do as well at the species that is for sure.

I mean't to say the I. nil do not do as well as the species.. I hit send too quickly.. sorry about that.

I wonder if other species of MGs with a caudex also go dormant? Though my I. albivenia seems to be growing several inches a day and doesn't appear to have any intention of slowing down currently! Don't know what the heck I am going to do with that vine if it keeps growing like that! Same with the Sticocardia Bereviensis. Both of those have those huge leaves and sturdy stalks! They might wind up growing all around my indoor spare room! LOL!

Jackie - I look forward to receiving and sowing some of your Pandy seeds!

Antoinette - LOL about your Mexican Elder Tree and the I. indica blooms! Hopefully your dh won't go out there and whack it down! I grow mine in pots and love them climbing and blooming on the cattle panel arbor! I have one on each end of the arbor! It was beautiful this past summer. It's winding down now getting ready to go dormant for the winter.

A, I am so going to miss the trees about to come down - the mulberry was especially wonderful for its lacy branching affording so many perches and mulberry fruits beloved by so many kinds of birds. It's about 25' tall, and the mulberry, along with every other woody plant in or near our garden up to 25' was mashed down to a "height" of 6" by last winter's 80" of snow. I couldn't believe it when everything that hadn't fallen down, bounced back up over the spring and summer. DH and I just can't handle that much tree/branch fall again - his carving hand has been loused up with both tendinitis and carpal tunnel - we still don't know if the doctors can fix it - so hope is still alive for that.

A - have you heard of, or did I mention, the Japanese art of bonkei? It's a whole village in a pot, complete with landscaping and waterfalls, etc. Imagine one of those smaller MG species in something like that! During the Edo period of Japan (1603 - 1867), all the members of Japanese aristocracy were expected to make at least one trip every year to Edo (now known as Tokyo). One of the connecting roads was the Tokaido Road, and it had approximately 53 stations (rest stops). Over the centuries, many artists made woodblock prints for each station of the Tokaido road, and they are breathtakingly beautiful. Well - someone made a bonkei for each Tokaido station based on some of those woodblock prints. We are talking about very hilly country in some cases, as well as watery lowlands in other cases. What kind of plants would you use if you were to attempt this?

I'll be happy to hear from anyone, as well as from A. with any ideas for planting/making a bonkei - I don't plan on doing this, just enjoy imagining.

a little history of bonkei - http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/BigPicture/Timeline.html

a few examples of Yoshishige's Tokaido Road bonkei - http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/gallery7.htm#Yoshishige

Hiroshige I's Tokaido Road woodblock series (Hoeido edition is a favorite) - http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/ .

Very cute about your dh and the blooming Mexican elder tree - my dh sometimes mistakes treasures for weeds, too, but the main thing is that he enjoys his morning cup of coffee out there - always some new thing each day as the season turns - not just plants :)

Becky, It wont be long till I mail sds out. I am fortunate, after hearing several horror stories,
that I gathered so many sds this yr.
Interesting about the macrorhiza Blue. I have one of those planted, still in a tiny pot.
If it survives will plant it out next summer.

Jackie, I think my smaller seedling went dormant and the other is still growing. But, I have an idea that may work for you. If you have not cut down your pandurata, why not take all the stems and try to root them? it works for most batata type plants and for some Ipomoea tuber type, like the I. Platensis, (which has another name, it was changed some time ago, but the name escapes me), anyway, it could work and you would have more plants that are of blooming stage. And if you have already tried it, let us know what happened.

A.

A, I cut down the pandy in late Sept, the purpurea had choked it out anyway.
I tried to root a couple of cuttings but have not been successful. Seems like to
me the stems are too wiry. Or maybe I just tried cuttings at the wrong time.
I;ll try again next yr.