Cibarius' MG Patch

I have finally gotten all my MG seedlings planted and on their way up the trellis. The photo is from two weeks ago. I have devoted one row of my garden to them this year. These plants that have their roots in the soil are doing better than the ones in containers. Most of my seeds came from beckygardener's seed swap, but there are some other sources, and I will mention them as they bloom. I was careful to preserve the identity of each plant. Nevertheless, errors still creep in. I will ask for confirmation of identity based on their appearance when the time comes. I have planted just two seedlings of each variety I am growing, and in some cases only one seedling as that was all that survived.

The first one to bloom was Keiryu.

Doug - Nice set-up! :-) :-) :-)

The Keiryu was one of the seed cultivars that may have come from me. Hopefully, as the vine matures, you will get some white flecks and some stripes on the blooms! The vine and current bloom looks beautiful! Nice leaves on that vine, too! :-)

I look forward to seeing more bloom photos as your vines all start blooming! :-)

Nice setup and healthy looking plants, Doug. Enjoy the flowers!

Yes Becky, those seeds came from you. The next to bloom was JishisXTenten, and those seeds came from joeswife in the seed swap. See the picture. The color seems to be quite variable.

Gerris I have sprayed my vines with Ortho Garden Disease Control with chlorothalonil now and then. Sometimes I add neem oil. But I like to restrict the spraying as much as possible, especially when plants are in full flower.

Doug - Lovely Jishi x TenTen bloom. The two colors you see on the two blooms ... the pink shriveled bloom is probably yesterday's bloom that you might have missed. The blue/purple bloom is a newly opened bloom. The interesting thing about MG flowers is they change colors as they wilt or age during the day. Often the blooms change to opposite colors such as blue to pink.

I try to keep pesticides and disease treatment to a minimum. I let Mother Nature handle it. Especially if I have other critters that I enjoy coming into my yard such as Butterflies, Hummingbirds, as well as children and pets. I guess you could say I am an organic gardener. I also grow food plants like tomatoes and don't want to spray pesticides on them for obvious reasons. So you sound like you treat only when necessary! :-)

What kind of soil mix is that around your plants? Is that mulch or the soil? It looks interesting and your plants certainly seem to like it by the looks of them! :-)

Very nice pictures, looks like you have really worked hard in your garden 'cause I didn't see any weeds! Keep up the good work- you have a green thumb for sure.

What nice comments. I appreciate them. I used a tiller to form furrows, then shoveled them out until they were about a foot deep. I added greensand and FlowerTone organic fertilizer inside the furrow. Next I filled each one with the least expensive prepared soil I could find. That was Home Depot Evergreen Topsoil, which is mostly ground bark at $1 per cu. ft. It took about ten bags to fill one forty foot row. These prepared rows sat for a few weeks while the plants got large enough to set out.

Normally I plant vegetables in a furrow so that I can water them effectively and quickly with a garden hose. And I can do it without standing there with the hose. The trough of soil holds the water in place so it soaks in where it is needed. In this part of Tennessee I have to water a few weeks out of the season just to keep plants on track until the rain comes.

The flower rows require less water, and I have watered them by hand. This is my first year growing flowers in rows.

Cabirus you really put your heart and soul in your gardening! It looks so clean a person would think you get on your hands and knees and pull every weed, wish I had that king of energy.
I am excited to see what your morning glories look like when they start doing their thang and putting on a show for you and everybody to see.
Keep up the good work!!

BoopsieTN - I have to agree with you! Doug's garden looks very pristine! And his plants look great!!!! :-) :-) :-)

Cibarius, it's a pleasure to follow your thread - interesting ideas and looks like gorgeous flowers to come

Karen

Thanks Karen. I hope to keep the photos coming. The MG season is just getting under way for me and I love to take pictures. One interesting thing about these flowers is that you have to get up early to enjoy them, and I have to get up early anyway. So I make a little extra time between coffee and commuting to take some pictures and make some notes. I will post them here. The pic is of Jishi x TenTen. I was playing with ISO on the camera and I had run this one up to 800, which is fast. In olden days you could not buy ASA 800 film. You had to treat ASA 400 some way to make it faster. Nowadays it is just a flick of the wheel. Isn't technology amazing? This is a Canon image. You can see the striations in the petal, and notice the little white dot on the right. I don't know what it is.

Beautiful bloom-never seen a morning glory like that especially here in McMinnville, TN which is the nursery capital of the world.
Keep those pictures coming you are doing a great job!

Boopsie - I agree - this one http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=7989295 is just beautiful. Cibarius, I can see you have a lot to teach many of us on this forum - photography being one in my case. Xeramtherum probably understands you better on that subject, better than I.

Karen

Can someone show me the parents of Jishi x TenTen? The seeds came from joeswife according to the seed swap. It was a beautiful union of genes. The plant has a low, bushy habit (so far).

Cibarius, you can find Jishi and Jishi x TenTen by:
-- click on Beckygardener's dg moniker in this thread
-- then click on "Read Beckygardener's Garden Diary"

My home page is pretty boring, but some members of this forum's home pages lead to some wonderful things. So, try clicking on others, too.

(Alternative to clicking on a dg member's moniker in a thread, you can also click on the Communities tab at the top of any webpage on dg, and then click on the word "Members" in the box on the right.)

Karen,
I had not realized the value of diaries. Thank you for showing me. Here is my Jishi x TenTen as of yesterday. The form is clearly similar to what becky had. I wish my photos were a good as her's. Where can I get photo advice?

Doug - In the MG forum sticky index, under Photography, is a series of tutorials on photography that Xeramtheum shared with this forum - hope you find them helpful

Cibarius, I think your photos are great!

Boopsie, you're right - maybe Doug was asking how to post pictures to a dg blog, instead of how to make great pics like he already is?

I'm not the one to answer this question - would anyone else like to chime in here with how to create a blog and integrate photos with it?

Doug - Your vines look awesome! Really! And I think your photography is wonderful! I certainly couldn't teach you anything about better photos! You are doing a great job in all areas!

I have been waiting for new vines to flower. Here is what the morning glory row looks like in the setting sun. Half the corn is harvested and gone.

Shibori Purple x Gray Lady has put out blossoms. These seeds came from beckygardener. The plant is growing around the wood steak that is one from the left end in the previous photo. The plant has not yet climbed up the support.

I should note that the second picture of the growing row is taken from the opposite side as the first picture at the beginning of the thread. Here is Split Indigo Blue with seeds from luvesgartdanes. Is this flower form what is expected from that cultivar? Soon all the vines will be in bloom.

Love your two blooms Cibarius

Cibarius your morning glory blooms are beautiful, I cannot decide which 1 is the prettiest! I am anxiously waiting to see your next photos of blooms.

Doug, what a wonderful garden and thank you for sharing. We've been out of town and came home to ton of weeds. It's my understanding it's been raining here. Thundering tonight but we will see if it will rain. It has done that 3 or 4 nights now and no rain in sight!

Also Doug if you are looking to do closer photo of your flower, may be you can check and see if your camera has a close up or 'flower' setting that will allow you to get closer to your flowers. The photos are already beautiful in my book.

Ishidatami has bloomed. Actually this was two weeks ago, but I am just now getting it posted. This flower grew from beckygardener's seeds.

And this is Matsukaze with seeds from gardener2005. This was the first blossom on the plant, and it certainly was an unusual one. I would appreciate comments. I am anxious to see what else this plant produces. The small gray and black pattern in the center was part of the flower. I did not investigate it that morning and now it is gone...

Doug, just realized that no one answered your original question about
Indigo Blue. These type blooms don't always start out split, takes a while
to start making those beautiful split blooms.

Hi cibarius,
Matsukazi is one of the purplish Tie Dye flowers, I've got photos around here somewhere, they are gorgeous and large flowered, wait till you see the next blooms. They used to come in the Park's Tie Dye (blue Tie Dye) pack, I don't know if they still sell them, I think they do.

Doug - I love your Ishidatami and Shibori Purple x Gray Lady ! Really pretty blooms on those vines! Your garden is coming along so nicely! They like that red clay soil! :-) Keep the photos coming!

I appreciate your comments. My white feathered hige has bloomed. These seeds came from momcat. Its really a great looking flower!

I've been waiting for this one to bloom too. It is called Blue on Blue Shibori and the seeds came from a Japanese seller, not from the seed swap. Now I can see why he named it that. There are two shades of blue. Have other folks grown this one?

Cibarius, your Blue on Blue Shibori is georgeous! I have never seen a morning glory bloom like it especially in my area of TN, the photo makes me want to touch it. Do the leaves have a touch of lighter green in them? You have done such a good job on your morning glory row in your garden-do you ever invite friends to come and see all your beautiful blooms and plants? I am anxious to see your future photos-you really have great photos!

This message was edited Sep 4, 2010 6:26 AM

Boopsie- Thanks for keeping an eye on my thread. I have not had a visitor yet, but it is definitely possible. I just finished hoeing the weeds and cutting down the corn (after harvesting it). I have not used any chemicals on this garden. There are large European hornets visitng the blossoms regularly. This is the first year I have noticed them being around so often. I need to learn more about them. Perhaps they have a nest nearby. They are difficult to photograph, but I will try. Aug. 11 PM

Doug - Your White hige and Blue Shibori are lovely! You always take such great photos!

How was your corn harvest? Lots of ears? Do you grow tomatoes too? I can't remember!

My corn did quite well. I froze about 36 packages of cut or creamed corn. The variety I grow is called Io Chief. It is a flavorful yellow corn that isn't too sweet. I can no longer grow tomatoes. They get blighted. So I just buy them at the farmer's market. I do grow some peppers. While not as vigorous as they could be, they do alright. I grow mild jalapenos like Senorita and hotter ones like Chichimeca for eating fresh. And I have dill always coming up from seeds that drop every year. Recently I have been trimming back my morning glory vines to keep them from growing together. I have not sprayed. I discovered that there are chiggers in them!

Chiggers in the MG vines? Really? That's interesting!

I really like your garden alot. I am glad blue jishi x ten ten is doing well. I planted alot of your seeds from the swap. I wish I had a tiller, can I borrow yours?