I have been waiting all summer, and then a frost took my vine. But it must not have affected all of it because this morning I counted 7 blooms. A bit on the small side, but they were there! The vine looks terrible, but I'm thrilled at the blooms. I thought the vine was toast.
A close up of Wine and Roses.
Beautiful colors on those blooms revclaus, glad you showed them off to us!
~Sunny
revclaus - Glad to see that your plant bloomed(!)...if you could post a closeup of a sideview of the outside base of the bloom,I'd be interested to see what the sepals look like or if the pedicels are reflexing after fertilization...
TTY,...
Ron
Seven more blooms today!
Ron, here's a pic of the side view.
And another..
I love that color!!
revclaus - Thanks for the sideview showing the elogated sepals...they are certainly Ipomoea nil...
TTY,...
Ron
Revclaus, to get a head start on next summer, have you thought of doing what Janet does in Sweden: wintering MG vines over indoors? She doesn't have a greenhouse - just windows. I'm not sure if I saw gro-lights or not over her potted vines.
Ron, for the sake of argument, if Revclaus were to winter a monster vine like this one in a pot indoors over the winter, would he just keep winding the vines round and round their little wee trellis? Or just hack back from time to time? Is there anything we should know about hacking back?
I hope I'm not being pesky about returning to this question. Our old house is about 540 sq. ft. and I'm hoping to winter quite a lot indoors - especially I. purpurea 'Double Blackie' and Emma's Yagurumas. Any advice would be much appreciated.
bluespiral - Well,I'll respond to your inquiry...although revclaus started this thread and I don't want to presume to hijack this thread...I can aways erase this post if requested by revclaus to do so and place this reply on a different thread that may be more approprate...
Overwintering smaller vines is usually easier than trying to overwinter 'monster' sized vines...big vines would usually need alot of serious light and warmth...if anybody has alot of light and warmth available >then go for it,but one of the key factors about annuals is that one of the major chemical signals that triggers the plant to die comes from the feedback loop from the flowers to the root... and I personally would not reccomend trying to overwinter an annual that is very large...
The type of light and heat that is available will be a major factor in determining what will most likely successfully overwinter...Janett has a very large wall of glass that allows alot(!) of natural sunlight to come through...and as I remember she actually started some seeds very early and didn't actually get annuals to grow longer than the usual one flowering season...but I might be mistaken about that...if you know the thread where she mentions what she did >please post it for everyones easy reference...
I have 3 relatively small windows that get afternoon sun and so I work with what I have...
I've had success with overwintering Ipomoea purpurea that were kept small (!) and by keeping the temperature somewhat cool ala 63 degrees >I've been able to get some I.purpureas to make it through the winter in a semi-dormant state and in effect never actually finish their usual one season life cycle...but this is a bit tricky to find just the right combination of light and temperature that works...
I would say it is better to root cuttings >and this should be done properly planned in advance and not by waiting until the 11th hour...but anyway,if you root cuttings from younger growth and remove most of the flowerbuds...the vine won't flower and if the vine doesn't flower >it will bypass one of the major feedback signals from the spent flowers to the original old root that initiates the death signal...but unless you have a particularly rare specimen of some type that didn't produce seeds...there shouldn't be a need to try and prolong the life of an annual beyond the usual lifecycle...except for the 'madcap' fun(!) of it...which is always legitimate in my 'book'...
I personally prefer to work with smaller vines that are kept semi-dormant...small vines with limited light won't grow very fast and can easily be kept on a small trellis by winding the vine around or upwards...'hacking' the vines can sometimes shock (the semi-dormant plants that have already been brought inside) to death...but,if you have alot of light and warmth and the plants will be in a more active metabolic state >then cutting the plants back may not be too much of a shock...
Step one is really to determine what type of light and heat you can provide for the plants...and perennials are designed to live for many years and can easily take being cut back...The Ipomoea nil and Ipomoea purpurea are annuals(!) and overwintering annuals so they behave like 'perennials' is a completely different 'experiment'...
I think Joseph has been overwintering some annual Ipomoea purpurea and possibly some Ipomoea nil in a relatively well lit porch...so perhaps he could shed some light on his approach to overwintering annuals...It may also be the case that plants that are germinated/started at an unusual time of the year may have a different type of internal clock setting than plants which are started in the Spring when most annuals would 'naturally' start...So,the time of year that the plants are started may be a factor in allowing certain annual Ipomoea to be successfully overwintered as 'perennials'...
TTY,...
Ron
Overwintering this large vine (which is also interspersed with a first-year jackmanii "superba") wouldn't be a task I'd want to tackle. I do sometimes grow my plants from seed using a small light arrangement, but I don't have windows with sufficient light to allow that to go on for very long. I plant ny indoor grown vines outdoors as early as possible. By then they may be as tall as a foot or so.
I grew Akatsuki no Umi, Ipomoea nil, indoors and it flowered all winter long. I had it growing on a circular trellis in a small container, and it did not make very many leaves and vine, but it did flower a lot. It was room temperature. The window faced west, so the plant got natural winter sunlight in the afternoon. It is fun and nice to have flower color in the wintertime.
Gerris2, did you take any photos of your indoor set up?
Ron, thanks for answering my question in such comprehensive detail. And, Joseph, for fanning madcap flames. Revclaus, I thought those flowers were gorgeous, too - thanks for humoring my tangent.
