Last year's crosses, this year's vines/blooms!

Becky - The fallen flowers are good fertilizer...

I always recycle mine...

Spectacular!!! ^_^
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=4932358

Ron - Ha! Good idea! Never even thought about the spent blooms being good fertilizer! Thanks for that tidbit of information! Shall gather them up and add them to the top of the soil under the vine. :-)

Thanks Ronnie! I am enjoying this vine for sure!

I think this frog approves of the vines I am growing. Doesn't he look like he is smiling in agreement! LOL!

Oh, you guys, this is torture!!!
I still have 40 degree days here- nights in the high 30's to 40's still... I'm a LONG WAY from blooms. The few seeds I winter-sowed are sprouting, but I hesitate to plant them out.
I counted... I have 27 diff. MG's! Some are purpurea, some are nil, some are???
Tomorrow I'm starting a new batch sown indoors in the hopes it will be in the 60's in the next few weeks... :0(
Thank you to all who've set me up with new cultivars!!!

Here is a new photo from today's blooms. Some of the blooms had pollen. It is also cooler at night as we had a front move in earlier in the week. The behavior of this vine reminds me so much of the I. purpurea. If I am not mistaken, I purpurea like cooler temps, not the sweltering heat that I. nils like. Of course, I attempted to pollinate as many of the blooms as I could.

This message was edited May 18, 2008 10:35 AM

Seedpods.

Two blooms.

I also noticed with the cooler evening temps that some of the blooms came out smaller in the subsequent days. Such an interesting cultivar this Youjiro Yaguruma Blizzard cross!

This message was edited May 16, 2008 12:07 PM

Interesting and beautiful. Love this one.

Wow Becky, just beautiful stuff...We on the other hand have had wacky weather here and have lost most of the seedlings I had planted, not just MG's, that were supposed to be okay to put outside long time ago. Gosh last month was snow, unheard of here and lotsa rain recently. Its supposed to be 30C this weekend (winter to summer right away), which is a long weekend for us in Canada, our first one actually...and of course Im working once again

I bought more of everything at home depot about a week ago and planted them in containers that are outside now, and hoping for the best. My local squirrel or squirrel's were in alot of them this morning and having a hey day in them.... they always dig everything up...ugh..I looked at the damage they did and there are lots of seedlings, but dont know how many will survive

Im still in the mode of just planting stuff here, never mind the blooming process and cant wait to finally get my containers ready and show everyone some pics..keeping my fingers crossed...lol

Hope everyone has a great weekend

BC is zone 8B? wow. I never knew. I hear there are some amazing gardens up there in Vancouver. If politics here goes the wrong way, we may join you in zone 8B British Columbia. (we're also thinking New Zealand) I have a lot of family in Iran. The only reason I want my son to ever go there is to visit his granny.... {edited to say, son is safe here with me}.

Becky... stunning! you're killin' me with this one. You should be so proud.

This message was edited May 16, 2008 4:57 PM

Thanks everyone!

Sydney - I have a squirrel and fruit rat problem here, too. I use chicken wire to cover the tops of all my containers until the plants are growing nicely. It works to keep the rodents from eating all the seeds. You might want to try that! I even devised an interesting way to protect and grow seeds in the ground. See the photo in this thread:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4936285

I am using concrete sprinkler donuts and stacking them and then covering them with chicken wire. My rodents not only go for the seeds, but also chew through the vines to sharpen their teeth. :-( So far this new idea seems to be working. I have my fingers crossed! Good luck getting some vines!

Shawna - I, too have heard some nice things about Canada. Though it might be too cold for my thin blood. I had no idea there were zone 8's up there! WOW!!!

It gets very warm and humid here believe it or not with today being in the 90's or so. There are so many beautiful gardens here to see and check out, here is one link that I think you will really enjoy. Becky that was a great idea and Soulja you should come for a visit as once you do you will never want to leave...it really is stunning here, with the mountains, ocean etc...very clean friendly place

www.buchartgardens.com

Let me know what you think

That wasnt the link that was supposed to come up, so perhaps just type in buchartgardens as they have a video you can watch..really nice stuff there

Sydney - Is this the site you were trying to point us to?
http://www.butchartgardens.com/the-gardens/virtual-tour/virtual-tour.html

Yes, thanks..did you check it out??

Sydney - Absolutely! The gardens are truly beautiful! That's what I want my yard to look like!!!! LOL! Seriously... it's amazing! We have some beautiful public gardens in Florida too. I am partial to water gardens and that works well for me living in Florida with all the lakes and swamp land! LOL!

okay it's still freaking me out that Vancouver BC is one zone short of Florida (!!!) and yes that Butchart garden is a sight! wow. Impressive. I just absolutely love the Pacific northwest and have spent time in Oregon & Washington. i read about the climate in Victoria and the averages are 50 - 70 degrees? Not much lower than 40 in Winter & not higher than 85 in summer? Is that true? wow. We could live with that. Extraordinary sydney and thanks. one day you might have a new neighbor.... WATCH OUT THE AMERICANS ARE COMING!

Thats so funny and yes people are usually very surprised to see how mild our climate is here, not to mention beautiful. You should really come for a visit..heres another link for you

www.seevancouverbc.com

hope this one works

Sydney - Your temps are right up my alley. Not too cold and not too hot. I agree with Shawna ... better watch out ... you may have lots of new neighbors! LOL! The city I live in used to be called the best kept secret. It used to be a quiet fishing town. Lots of beautiful land that was once cheap to purchase. Not any more! :-(

Okay ... I have had an interesting development on my NOID vine.

As usual it had lots of blooms. But the pollen production ceased the minute the weather turned warm again. So that kinda confuses me. Did it stop because of the I. purpurea gene? I. purpurea like cooler weather. Or did is start producing pollen because the weather got colder ... perhaps it thought that winter was coming and thus began to get serious about self-pollination and seed production?

The cultivar Youjiro Yaguruma and this NOID have similar characterists and behavior. I had the same weird seed issue last year when I grew the daddy vine. I really was afraid I wasn't going to get any seeds at all, but as the weather cooled, it did produce seeds. So maybe I just answered my own question? Or maybe it is much more complicated than that?

Also ... here is the exciting thing that I observed this morning ...
The white edge completely disappeared on one of the blooms. I saw it immediately because it looked so bizzare compared to the rest of the blooms! This vine never ceases to entertain and amaze me! I just love it!!! What other plants produce such a wide variety of flowers? Not too many that I am aware of. Nothing predictable about this vine! I love surprises every morning. Here is the unusual bloom. (I never saw this happen on the YB last year. It always had at least a thin white edge if my memory serves me correctly.)





This message was edited May 18, 2008 8:47 AM

And here is a bloom just a couple of inches away. So much variety on one single vine! Crazy!!!

I just have to wonder IF many of the cultivars that the Japanese have created came from the Youjiro gene? I bet they did! I could see them hand pollinating to create either of these as a new cultivar by chosing the bloom they want to fertilize for many generations to make the vine/blooms stable. All from one single vine - Youjiro!!

Fascinating!!!! :-) :-) ;-)

Becky, I planted so many of the MG seeds you sent me that I have a flat of six that are flowering in the house in practically no soil at all. They are all intertwined (no unraveling them now) and cascading over the tabIe. They look so sweet, but surely they won't survive much longer like this. Is there a way I could put them on top of some potting soil in a larger pot and gently work the soil around them? Or is it possible to add some soil on top of what's already there? I never expected so many to germinate, but here they are! The ones outside are really healthy looking, but the chilly nights have probably kept the flowering to a minimum.

Amazing variation in those blooms Becky. Never seen anything like it.
Both blooms are just gorgeous. I hope it produces pollen so you can
make like a bee. Even open pollinated seeds would be wonderful. No telling
what they might produce.

Pam - Awesome! Be sure to fertilize the ones outside with Bloom Booster to encourage flowers! The I. nils will start flowering once your night temperatures rise.

If you can gently remove the roots/vines from the flat and just sit them on top of some soil in a large pot and carefully add soil around them, they should be okay. Unless of course the roots are also intertwined underneath. Cutting the roots could cause a problem, but at this point you don't have too many options. They definitely need to be potted up into a bigger pot with some good soil. Otherwise they will expire sooner than they should. You should take a photo of them before you transplant them! I'd love to see how the blooms look! :-)

Jackie - I hand-pollinate them every morning with my current Kawaii MG blooms. As soon as my other vines start blooming (hopefully some will by the end of this week), I can start crossing them with more climbing vines instead of the mounding/trailing Kawaii. Though in all honesty, I hope some of the Kawaii take and I get some mounding vines. I would love to grow and display them in a hanging basket. Right now the NOID is such a vigorous climber, it would not do well in a basket. So ... we shall see! I hope everyone wants seeds from this delight, as I want to see what else we get from this amazing Youjiro gene. It's unstoppable!!! LOL!

Becky, I can take a picture with my cell phone (it would be the first in two years), but don't think I can upload it. Since I stopped working, I've fallen by the wayside technically. My camera is one of those grocery store digitals. I just have to do something about this! The flat is just one of those clamshells that greens come in, so I'm going to attempt to lift the little guys out and put them on/in potting soil. I will report back. BTW, all your MG's are spectacular. You sent me the purpura (sp?).

Sydney, DH and I went to Butchart Gardens about 10 years ago. It was pre-website days, so we didn't really have a picture in our minds ahead of time. We were completely blown away by the scale and beauty of the garden. We arrived at opening time on a gorgeous cool and sunny morning and stayed all day--just couldn't get enough. I can't recall the name of the hotel we stayed at. It was a huge, grand old place at water's edge. In any case, I remember great food, great wine, and magnificent vistas.

Pam - Oh! Don't worry about a photo then. Sorry!

Go ahead and transplant the MGs. Just try not to disturb the roots too much and they will probably do just fine! Good luck!

The Kohkan seeds you sent me are growing just amazingly. I can't wait to see some blooms! I planted some of the other MG seeds you sent me too, and all are growing gangbusters! Thank you again for sharing them!

Pam - I didn't realize that you knew Sydney! Are you friends, relatived, ??? How cool! I would probably spend days at a place like Butchart Gardens! Sounds so beautiful and serene! Thanks for mentioning it!

Becky, Well, actually I don't know Sydney other than from postings here on your thread. I just feel like I know the two of you because everyone here is so friendly.

Got some interesting blooms today.

Here is the entire vine.

What was interesting about this vine today is that the top of the vine had blooms that were all more the typical Youjiro pattern. With an odd one or so showing up.

The bottom and middle of the vine had the more variegated and lighter blizzard patterns and colors. Very interesting!

Is that typical of the Youjiro and Blizzard MGs to have the bloom patterns and colors change on the older stems? The top was the new growth and had the more solid color looking patterns.

That one is soooooo lovelly, Becky. : )

Wowser Becky. Great pics you're sending of this beautiful vine.

Does it have the same "glow" in person, that it seems to have in the pictures?
-T

Wow! That's a lot of blooms at one time!

great stuff becky, im still waiting for mine as the weather here has been so wacky this year

that is the most beautiful thing ever in the world ever.

I'd make a coffee table book out of just single blooms from that vine. You should charge admission to get in to see it. Is it in the ground or in a pot? where in your yard is it? just ... glorious Becky. Congratulations again. I'm using the concoction you suggested and I'm seeing mad results already! "Baby Daddy" came back to life and bloomed but zero specks of pollen, however many green seed pods.... with Becky's name on 'em...