I got one.

No, it isn't anything spectacular - just a somewhat pale example of 'Flying Saucers', from a store-bought seed packet, but...

I would just like to take a moment to say to the guy at the "Arrogant Farms Nursery and Garden Center"...
The guy who literally laughed in my face when I asked about the prospect of growing a few morning glories indoors...
The guy who answered my question with the words, "What are you, crazy?!"...
The guy who told me in a patronizing manner that I might be able to grow a handful of sickly vines, but would never in a million years get any flowers...
The guy who told me these things when I had gone there honestly, asking for help and advice...
The guy who single-handedly lost all of my possible future business for his company...

I would just like to say that the guy at "the competition" down the road was much more helpful.

I think you should send him your photos! It isn't widely know about growing MG's inside in the US for some reason. It was quite a revelation to me! Nice bloom, you did it!

Congrats, happy you were able to grow such a nice one!!

Joseph

Thanks. There's at least a dozen more buds where that one came from. Most of the ones that are nearing bloom are Flying Saucers, but there are also Picotee Red and Picotee Blue vines sharing the same pot, each with buds that aren't as far along.

It's proven to be quite easy, actually. I just keep the pot on a windowsill next to some mini-blinds, and water it every few days. The plants are doing all the hard work.

You outlasted the critic and got your prize. Good blooms!

Oh please tell me you are going to make a phone call to a manager??

Nice photo!

Wow, that is great.. This is my first year growing inside also for a long period of time, ususally I just start them indoors and transplant outside.. anyway, no blooms yet, just a couple of buds.. but, you are very encouraging.

Great job.
A.

Well, I've tried to move some outside, but I'm also trying to figure out how to prevent the local birds from making off with all of my plants. Everything I put out there seems to be fair game. I lost a large basket of about eight small morning glory vines, and most of a planter of tomatoes earlier. This morning, I discovered that about a third of a small ivy plant had been "appropriated", presumably for nest-building purposes. I need to get some morning glories and beans started out on my balcony soon, but I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the birds from purloining them when I'm not looking. Perhaps a rubber snake or two in the planters? Or is it just wishful thinking that they'd be frightened off by something obvious like that?

Right now, I've got two dozen morning glory sprouts that are quickly outgrowing their germination tray, and will need transplanting soon. So far, the best thing that I've come up with is a wire frame to stretch some netting over the planters, but at the rate that the vines are going, they'll outgrow that in no time, and it'll be lunch time for the birdies again.


As to dealing with the guys at the "Arrogant Farms Nursery and Garden Center" - It's tempting to contact them and show them my flower, but that just seems a bit unnecessary to me. They knew that they'd lost my business when I walked out that day, and they've received several negative ratings on the Garden Watchdog for treating other customers the same way. In general, I'm happy to let "word of mouth" do its thing. Interestingly, one of my co-workers has a son who just got a job there, and they apparently treat their employees with just about as much care and respect as they do their customers. I don't know - I'm still waffling, and may eventually sit down to write a review on the Watchdog, but for now, I've got to figure out how to keep the birds from eating my plants.

-- Seamus

Put a out a birdfeeder, it will work. That's what I've got here and had a couple in CA. The birdies will leave your stuff alone, now for the nesting, maybe you could put out a basket with some cotton balls and also the lint fromt he dryer, they will take that stuff first.

I am hoping that still works here, so far, they have stayed in their designated area in the front of the house, but, you never know.

A.

Nice Flower and Vine

Chicken wire cylinders keep our seedlings pretty safe. Congratulations on transcending Arrogant Nursery and flowering such a beautiful MG.

I had morninglories blooming indoors from early spring until the end of March!

Colderwild, most things are beyond his expectatations. I have a BS in Horticulture, but when I go to the best local garden center and listen to the "geeK' talking shallow crap, I just wanting to thorw up. He wants to be a local celebrity more than anything. Keep going and do your research on internet............ Frank

I came back from a short trip this afternoon, to find that my little pot of flower vines has been busy.

On Friday morning when I left, I had a Flying Saucer and a Picotee Blue that were halfway open, presumably because of cloudy conditions outside and the mostly-closed blinds next to them. I could see enough of the Picotee Blue to see that it was at least something of a "double", with little petal-like things inside instead of a stamen. That one had closed by this afternoon, and been replaced by another flower with normal structures. The two Flying Saucers on top bring my total on that one to four blooms, none of which have anything really resembling the "blue rays on a white field" patterning that I'd been expecting. Instead, they've been a sort of uniform pale blue with sort of a star in the folds of the corolla(?). I suspect that this may be resultant from growing them indoors, in relatively low-light conditions as compared to an outdoor, full-sun planting.

Overall, this has been an interesting project, as I've hardly ever grown flowering plants of any sort prior to this, let alone anything with as wide a variety of colorations and habits. I'm looking forward to planting a bunch of them outdoors and watching them develop and climb.

Colderwild - sometimes "Flying Saucers"
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/145442/
can look very similar >almost like a "Blue Star"
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/145441/
before it develops more of the flaked pattern with alot of blue and sometimes "Blue Star"
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/82353/
gets substituted for "Flying Saucers" by 'mistake'...

TTY,...

Ron

So far (five flowers, now), every one of them have looked like "Blue Star", with no real random ray pattern in the space in between the ribs that you see in the "Flying Saucer" photos. I think that I may have gotten one of those "oops" packs of "Blue Star". We'll have to see how this new batch sprouts - maybe I got some of each.

The seeds were all light tan in color, and wedge-shaped, if that helps at all. Of all of the varieties that I've sprouted so far, this is the only one with seeds that look that way - everything else has been small, roundish, and black/brown in color.

Here's a link to a post where there is a photo of beige Ipomoea tricolor seeds mixed in with beige Ipomoea purpurea seeds...
http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3345139

TTY,...

Ron

The long, pointed ones in that photo look exactly like the ones I got in the packet of "Flying Saucers" seeds.

This is a photo of all of the remaining seeds - all of the ones I've planted from this pack also had the same basic shape and size. They average about a quarter-inch in the long dimension.

I'm not familiar with how commercial seeds are produced, but I find it sort of interesting that mis-labeling, mis-identifying, and mis-packaging seems to be fairly common across the board.

With the arrival of blooms number six and seven, all of which have looked pretty much the same, I'm pretty sure that I'm looking at 'Blue Star' instead of 'Flying Saucers'. The seven blooms have come from two different vines, grown from seeds selected at random from the same packet; maybe there was some unconscious selection based on seed size or something, but I didn't sit down and try to figure out which ones looked more viable.

I took this photo in somewhat better lighting conditions than being back-lit by the mini-blinds, and you can definitely tell that they've got a pastel blue field with deeper blue rays in the folds (please excuse any lapses in proper terminology - I'm new at this). There's no evidence of random blue rays or white speckles as indicated by the photo on the packet. They're very pretty, and I like them - they're just not what I was expecting.

Those are very pretty flowers, and a nice photograph, congrats!

Joseph

Those are great looking with the pastel blue color which I prefered. Do you recall if the seeds were brown or black? I would trade for some if you have a few to spare.

Dee

Rubber snakes will keep the birds away, you just have to move the snakes to keep the birds guessing. Had a major problem with starlings and this took care of it. You can get rubber snakes at the dollar store.

OMG! I've never seen Morning Glories quite as special as I've seen in this thread! I've grown normal MGs but have never heard of Flying Saucers and the like.

Thanks for turning me on to them! :-)

Thanks for the replies regarding the plastic snakes; I'll have to look into that one. The birds may wonder how a little snake was able to climb all the way up to a third-floor balcony, but I'll leave it to them to figure it out.

I just put my most recent starts out on the balcony, and put up some netting to let them get established, hopefully without interference from the birds. They're all still there this morning, so it may be working. The plants may not be able to get through the mesh with anything except the very tips of their vines though, so it may impede their ability to climb the railing as I am hoping they will do. Once they established a little more (and after I've bought some toy snakes), I'll probably remove the bird netting and let them climb on their own.

The morning glories are part of a project I have been working on, to both grow some shade on the side of my balcony, and monitor the growth of said plants as well. I've set up a "sort-of-live" webcam, and though I am still tweaking it and experimenting with the settings, it can be found here: http://www.rthtg.net/beancam/index.html

Dee: I received your D-mail, and have sent a reply - thanks!

Image: A sample shot from the BeanCam - lots of little morning glories, which I'm sure are just itching to climb all over that railing.