Overwintering morning glories question

I live in Toronto, Canada and our weather here is increasingly becoming colder. It's fall, and I think my mgs can still survive, but what about winter? any of you guys have experience with overwintering mgs inside your houses?

Mine are currently potted and just started to sow them about a month ago, so they're still babies. I've saved some seeds just incase they die on me inside.

Eliz

Eliz - A number of folks here have grown MGs indoors & in greenhouses in winter. I've read where some just place them in front of an inside sunny window during the winter months. But there are folks that use grow lights and have a room set-up to grow them year round. Beth (ByndeweedBeth) is one MG grower who might be able to give you some advice about this.

If you go to the sticky thread:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4680855

Go down to where the topic is "Lights" and I believe there are some discussion threads about growing the vines indoors in winter and the lighting used.

It can be done is all that I know. Sorry I couldn't help you more.

I do grow them inside to extend the season. The 1000 watt metal halide light keeps the room at about 80 degrees as well. Let me know any specific questions you might have...
Beth

Eliz, there's one thing I've learned that I do not do at my peril:

------- debugging plants before bringing them indoors for the winter -------

the simplest, niftiest procedure I've ever found on the subject comes from Illoquin in the Cottage Gardening forum: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=5451946

We had a great, very informative discussion in another thread on this forum about pros and cons of relatively toxic and nontoxic pesticides that would also apply to overwinting MGs indoors: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/878517/#post_5294619

Hope this helps, too, and thanks for bringing this up - I've been working on a sticky entry for this subject

Becky - that's what I'm planning to do if I don't get my lights set up..just put them by my windowsill as I get more than enough sunlight coming in my room; I can grow hoyas and orchids by the windowsill and they thrive very well =). Thank you for the link =). I think I'll consider using the inexpensive Gro lights, as suggested on your link as another alternative. I don't want my bedroom to get too hot =/.

Beth - @_@. 1000 watt is enough to provide lighting for a 250 gal aquarium that has high-light plants in it!!! (4x250 gal for bright light loving plants and 2-3 times x gallons for low-light aquarium plants). I currently have an aquarium fixture (not the one fixed in the hood) that can accomodate for such lighting, I can disassemble it and put it on a table/stand for the plants. I think we have actinyde lighting on it, I'm not sure if they're halides as we used them for corals/salt water aquarium. What kind of colour of light should I be looking for with regards to the wavelengths etc? The coral light/ salt water aquarium light is blue in colour, and you can see it from far away when we turn off our lights inside the house (our house looks like it's glowing). and the thing about them is that they get too hot. I've no experience with artificial lighting and indoor plants, as stated above, somebody had suggested gro lights which are more cheaper and cost effective.

bluespiral - lol sometimes I'm too lazy to do that too...this will be my first year that I'll be bringing lots of plants from outside to inside the house and since I'm trading/giving away some of my dear plants, I think I will have to practice this diligently. I've a book at home from Reader's Digest and also recommends a similar method to the link you have provided. I've always wondered if it's ok to put soap on ALL plants..even a small concentration of bleach (diluted with water). I'm still not so sure about using pesticides, specifically the toxic, inorganic ones as we have pets inside the house. I have 3 doxies and they're very curious and gets into everything. Even fertilizers, we don't use in the garden, or we rarely use them. They've eaten my pepper leaves and virginia creeper leaves and basils and my parsley patch. Looking forward for your sticky entry!

Thank you so much everybody for the input that you have provided, hopefully the mgs that I've planted won't wilt on me like my fucshias =( (couldn't keep them indoors, good thing I found out sooner because I was ready to buy more cultivars).

Eliz

I have a blue tye dye in a juice can, in the living room window that is now a year old and it has never been outside, and is still blooming from time to time. I am going to bring in my Rebecah, and put her in the window. Frank

evr, most of the coral reef lights are Metal Halilde from what I've heard. If you want to use a red wavelenth to favor blooming you can try a high pressure sodium, which gives the color of fall golden sunlight and isn't as harsh as MH.

I'm going to try to keep my mgs inside this winter. Glad I found this thread! This year has just been so cool and they haven't really done anything until recently. They are sure giving me lots of flowers lately though!

Frank - You've been growing a MG vine for a year??? That's really something!!!

red - Where's the photos??? LOL! I wanna see your blooms!

beckygardener - I don't have pictures of blooms from inside, but I have a few from outside. I will take some pictures and get them posted :)

Cool! I would love to see your blooms, Red! :-)

I started my mornng glories from seeds last winter in water bottle planters and hung them from hooks and they did wonderful and went into the ground this spring, and will be bringing in all the new babes to put in recycled water bottle planters again. I have so many varieties and colours from over the years it is such a joy... I have them in the pear tree from a hanging water bottle planter, on both sides of my back door porch rails cimbing wires I put up, all thru the south fence neighbors hedge and trees, all along the north fence, had a tall pole in each barrel of one colour for seeds that I already took down for harvesting, and now I have a ton of starts in the alley , the dog run, annd in the empty bean patch.
Take a plastic drinking water bottle, cut the bottom off with pinking shears, use a punch holer for the stings around the bottome soon to be the top, use a lighter to melt the rough edges into a flowery shape, fill with growing medium, hole for starts or seeds in center, tap down and give some water and hang on a hook! I have pics of the planters if u want to see what I did. I did this with all the vining seeds I coud get my hands on as well, and the chinese bean hiyacynth and cardinal vine did well also!

here's a pic of last years nursery with the planters I made ( I recycle alot )

becky - Here are my pictures (finally!)

This message was edited Sep 28, 2008 8:28 AM

This one is kind of hard to see

Hopefully this is a bit easier to see

Nice flowering plants, Becky, they look happy! I especially like the white kikyo JMG. Good growing!

Joseph

Love the blue blooms Red.
Joes wife, beautiful back yard and I like your winter nursery. Very
ingenious of you.

Red - WOW! Your vines are blooming up a storm! You are sure doing something they like! Very nice indeed!!! That little white bloom is sure sweet! :-)

joeswife - What a cool idea for a greenhouse! If there is a will, there will be a way! Lovely yard with all the vines! :-)

That was one of their better days of blooming haha. It has been a very cool summer, and they appeared to really enjoy the warmth of the house when I first brought them in! The white ones have not put up as good of a show however. I am pleased to say it looks like there are lots of seed pods forming! :)

Red, love those, wanna trade some seeds?

I have the red scarlt ohara, pink, purple, and dark blue, and uhh no white ones :P

Red - The white flowered bloom looks to be

Ipomoea purpurea "Milky Way"
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5608241
Looks like this is also the Ipomoea purpurea Milky Way...the cool weather can sometimes cause these to form a kikyo shape and the spot of color along the main fold can become very dilute to the point where it is barely visible,if at all
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5608244

Nice to the MG's blooming up there in Canada...


joeswife - Do you have any Scarlett O'Hara with solid red throats / tubes (?)
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/168717/

or

Wine & Roses
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/126682/

TTY,...

Ron

I have the scarlett o Hara gotta dig for the pic brb

I do have that, but i had to pull it up as it was choking out a purple queen plant, i have had to pull a bunch out *sniff*
saving seeds but they are Mixed..

RON: your user name after the ron is what I have planted in one of my "new" spots on the north side of the fence, it is a ground morning glory.. right? it mounds and has small blue trumpets.

Convolvulaceae is the botanical name for the entire Morning Glory Family
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=Convolvulaceae&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&searcher%5Bgrex%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=genus&images_prefs=both&Search=Search

This Family of plants contains approximately 54 genera and one of the genera is
Convolvulus
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=Convolvulus&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&searcher%5Bgrex%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=genus&images_prefs=both&Search=Search
the first 9 letters of the spelling are the same as the family it is placed within

The Convolvulus genus has many different species in it,although the most commonly grown is

Convolvulus tricolor
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=Convolvulus&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=tricolor&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&searcher%5Bgrex%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=cultivar&images_prefs=both&Search=Search


Hope that helps...

TTY,...

Ron

This message was edited Sep 30, 2008 12:15 PM

good grief I had no idea and I thought the 7 or 8 blooms I had was alot! Last year I had a gigantic white one.. someone gave me the seeds, I didn't find any pods so I am wondering if it is the moonflower vine instead of the white morning glory I thought it was? it only opened at night.. Also my sweet potatoe vines bloom like little morning glories is that typical?

Ron - I believe you are right on the mark. I don't have my seed packet with me at the moment, but I believe the white ones are Milky Way. All of the white I posted are from the same plant, and all of the blue/purple are from the same plant (I just had two varieties this year)

joeswife - I would love to trade :) I don't know how long my pods will take to mature, but I will definitely keep you posted. I thought I saw the seeds starting to darken on one of my plants when I checked a few days ago. I'd be interested in the red scarlet o'hara. You are just interested in the white correct?

Lisa - you grow your mgs inside your house? how are you lingonberries btw? lol I hope they're doing excellent and producing some small berries for you =).

All the pictures posted here are beautiful! they all look healthy and happy. Very innovative ideas too (like growing them in juice cans and recycling things)

joeswife - your first picture of your recycled containers, the plant in the upside down water bottle, is that mg? are you planning to transplant them later or would they stay in there? how about the one in the middle? are there live plants in there already? your creation is very interesting! =D.

I have planted Ron's gray series of mgs because I was so excited. I potted each seed in a small planter about 8 inches in diameter and now they've started to sprout. I'm also babying Xiongs and NOID blue jmgs. Hopefully they won't wilt when I put them inside; I had a couple of fucshia cultivars over the summer and placed them inside and within 2 weeks they all started loosing their leaves =(. I hope this will not happen to my mgs that I will be bringing inside.

Eliz

Liz: yes, all the glories in those water bottles went int the dirt outside from there and are still out, I just have to trin them down and bring them in if I want to keep them, did alot of things like that, I recycle as much as I can.. thanks for noticing..
I have a website if u go to it u can see the babies in waiting pics and then go to the 2008 back yard pics to see them.

ron: I found the scarlett o'hara on the side of the house I forgot about her she is all by herslef.. I have seeds from all of them that are planted away from each other..
the best luck inside thehouse is starting ftom seeds for me...

evr - I had my mgs outside, but there were frost risks very early and I really wanted to get seeds/keep them blooming a bit because they haven't performed well this year due to the cooler weather. Thus, I brought them inside :)

The lingonberries are doing very well. I didn't want to shock them after potting them, so I have had them inside although I should put them outside as the weather has been rather nice this week. I think I have two little berries growing on one of them :D

I haven't tried planting the seeds yet, but I will let you know if the germinate and how they are doing.

How are your lingonberries?

joeswife - I just harvested about 6 seeds from my white mg today :) Hopefully the other pods won't be long in ripening!

Hi guys,

just updating on the lighting situation. So I placed all my seedlings inside because of our weird weather; cold then hot, hot then cold etc. I put them inside my bedroom where they'll receive lots of lights; I can grow cacti/succulents, tropicals and orchids in my room, I even have to take some of my hoyas and ginger away from the window because it's too much lighting for them.

Just by accident, I noticed that mgs respond to your normal lighting that you use for your lamps (from Ikea? I guess?). I left my reading lamp on one night and noticed that the plants where twining at the light's direction. I've been using my reading lamp + natural light but I'm about to add another lamp with an agro light bulb (gro lights from home depot). One seedling that was going downhill I left right beside the normal lamp and it seems to respond well. Now it's doing very well =) (This one was from Ronnie's batch labeled as "Gray mix"; all the grays turned out normal-leafed but the one that was going downhill was variegated =D =D).

Tonight I'll be using the second lamp with the agro lights. Unfortunately, still can't find a mounting material for the tubes (I'm still going to use bulbs)...want to try using high P Na.

I don't think mine have been receiving enough light (I haven't been home lately, and they have degraded terribly). Looks like I have lots of seeds for next year though! :)

Lisa just use your reading lamp lol. =D

PS: lingonberry plants are producing berries! but they're sour...seeds did not germinate. If you'd like i can give you some seeds of mgs next spring =D.

I have one wee berry and one wee flower on mine :) I haven't started the seeds yet. I need to get on that although I have a feeling I won't get it done until Christmas. What color mgs do you have?

aww I hope they bloom more flowers + berries. I wasn't too happy with the seeds. Just let me know if you need some more plants and I'll be more than willing to ship them to you next spring. I mostly collect I. nils, I like all colours and patterns.. Just bought them off ebay and will be sowing them next spring and hopefully I will get some seeds out of them: http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/sj/evr/4039/ ...still buying some more and hoping to share/trade with DG members.

We need more Canadian morning-glory addicts! hehehehe passing this contagious plant-collecting around.

I think I might have to grow some awesome mgs next year and have an event at my house for everyone close :P That might evoke some interest. Perhaps I will have enough mg seeds to give to guests too!

That's a great idea Lisa! you can have gift packets and stuff... hehehe

Here's a pic of my Ipomoeas inside the house. I'm using one normal lamp (right hand side) and an agro lamp at the 8 oclock position. They seem to be doing just fine/okay, although they're not growing vigorously. with ONE exception which is Xiong's. This vine is very hardy, leaves never turned yellow. I had an issue with I. lobata's leaves turning yellow perhaps from stress/not enough light.

NOTE: the agro lamp is facing more downwards instead of upwards because I wanted it to face a newly shipped V.caracalla from Manitoba.

This message was edited Oct 16, 2008 9:50 PM