Morning Glories 2008 #24

Becky, Your blooms just keep getting better and better. The LYK x Kohkan
is to die for. The Hanafubuki is gorgeous with all her different looks.
Your Blue Star is amazing, beautiful like Joseph's.

That Hanafubuki is a knock out flower, Becky!

Becky - The photo here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5769222
of the "Blue Star" showing the developing seedpods in the left side of the picture would be great for the "Blue Star" PlantFiles entry
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/51633/

TTY,...

Ron


This message was edited Nov 10, 2008 4:35 PM

Thanks, Ron! I didn't realize that there were no photos showing seed pods. I'll take another photo in a week of just the pods and post it to the PlantFiles as well. They are so different than all the other MGs when producing seeds. The bloom just falls off which leaves the end looking like it was severed. But low and behold, within a week, you start to see these tiny little pods forming at the tip of the vine limb. I was so surprised! I thought the bloom just died without being fertilized. Very interesting vine!

Darren - I've never heard of Cassia Tea! I thought the bushes were poisonous. LOL!

Jackie - I am glad that you like the LYK x Kohkan, too! I still can't believe that it is finally showing the Blizzard pattern after all the blooms this vine has had. I pretty much figured it took on basically the traits of Kohkan. That's the crazy thing about the Yaguruma gene ... it comes and goes on a vine and can morph into an unusual bloom! But the one trait that it possesses from Yaguruma is the lack of pollen. That characteristic seems to be consistent in the gene pool ... much to my dismay.

Thanks, Joseph! I agree with you wholeheartedly about Hanafubuki! It's becoming one of my top 10 favorites. :-) Fingers crossed that I get some seeds from that vine! :-)

Becky, your Hanafubuki looks like the leaves are a little varigated in colour.. are they? just curious, because the seedlings of the seeds I planted from you have that same kind of spottiness or varigated look..

Yes! Hanafubuki does have variegated leaves. Just another feature that makes them so pretty! :-)

Several cultivars of MGs have variegated leaves. Kohkan has variegated leaves, also. Did I send you seeds for that one? I hope so! You'll love it!!!

hmm I better look and see what I planted LOL.. good thing I made a tag! oh it is purple blizzard it says.. I just took a pic of them again.. will post a little later..

Purple Blizzard also has variegated leaves. :-)

I used to make tags for all my vines, but the dang squirrels dig them up! Argh!

Now I use concrete sprinkler donuts and just count them to know which one each is. I have the names of my vines written by it's perspective number on a sheet of paper near my computer. I also draw out my flower beds and mark in the drawings what is planted where. The squirrels must like playing with my vinyl plant markers or something because I find them all over my yard! (rolling eyes ...)

If you look at my garden blog link: http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/i/36572/
You can see the solid and blizzard blooms with those variegated leaves. Such a lovely sight! :-)

This message was edited Nov 10, 2008 9:37 PM

Okay, bear with me.. whats a concrete sprinkler donut?

Debra - LOL! A lot of folks may not know what this is until they see it. It was a weird idea I came up with to protect my seedling JMGs and MGs from the squirrels. Keeps them from digging them up. I bought 60 donuts! NO KIDDING! And I would stack them as each seed sprouted and grew to the height of 3 donuts. Which in all honesty might be 6" - 7" high. See photo where just one of each is place where I have planted a single MG seed.

Here is how it looks once the vine starts growing in the middle of these donuts.

Here is what some of the young vines look like growing from the center of the concrete sprinkler donuts. :-)

I place chicken wire over the opening of the donuts when I first plant the seeds and when the vines are very small to protect them from the squirrels digging in them. It has worked so far! I am trying to co-exist with all the critters in my yard! :-)

This message was edited Nov 11, 2008 8:06 AM

Those are great, Becky.. where did you find those at? I have never seen them here..

Debra - I got mine at Home Depot. They use them to place around sprinkler heads to protect them from lawn mowers. :-) I was just cruising around the store looking for something to protect my seedlings from the squirrels and saw them and had one of those Ah Ha! moments! LOL!

aha! Home Depot! well, I have a lowes and have to go today so will look there before driving in to the big town..
here is a pic of the seedlings you sent me seeds of today..

I just made an interesting and important (for me anyway) discovery about Ipomoea lobata. I was out looking at the blooms and for the first time ever, I noticed the Stigma and Anthers sticking out from the blooms. I've never seen this before even when I grew them almost 2 years ago! So, I got out my trusty paint brush and lightly brushed the anthers and looked at the brush tip ... sure enough! there was pollen all over the brush! So, I promptly and gently dusted the Stigma with the pollen from my brush. :-) We'll see if it works. :-)

So apparently, when the buds are in full bloom, they turn a whitish color and the stigma and anthers emerge & extend out from the bloom for pollination! This MG species is so very different than most MGs I have seen or grown myself. Most enlightening to have made such a discovery this morning.

Here in the photo you can see the reproductive parts sticking out from the whitish bloom. :-) Sorry the photo isn't real sharp focus.

This message was edited Nov 11, 2008 10:25 AM

The whitish looking threads are what is left of stigma which must be the styles. Whether those were naturally pollinated or not is yet to be determined. But I did my best to pollinate a few this morning. Now I know what to look for! White blooms with the reproductive parts in plain view! HA! I had NO idea until I saw this today!

Debra - Your little seedling is looking good! Keep up what you are doing! :-) Good luck finding donuts at Lowes! :-)

Becky, . next will be little nodules.. and then tiny seed pods.. and they then look like a row of pearls hanging there LOL

Thanks Debra for showing me what they will look like! I am hoping my vine does produce seeds. I love this vine! It is like no other MG! :-)

I have a vine started for indoor growing fun. I bought these seeds in 2005 from trikerman on eBay and got 100% germination (5/5). The seeds were sold as a Chinese MG, 'JianHaun 572'. Have any of you grown this one? They look like Ipomoea nil seeds.

Joseph



This message was edited Nov 11, 2008 2:42 PM

Just one pic from today to share.

Joseph - Interesting seeds. Are the seedcoats cracking because of their age or is this a really unusual MG cultivar? Do you know what the blooms are suppoosed to look like?

Great photo, gardenpom! The I. purpureas seem to love this cooler weather! :-)

Becky,

The seed coats were cracking because they had soaked in water and softened up and the cotyledons I guess are waking up like gangbusters. The flower was out of focus in the ebay listing and all I remember was it was blue. I couldn't find a photo of it on the web. I will try sending a message to trikerman and see if he answers perhaps with a better photo.

Joseph

To the new thread #25

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/922991

Joseph - I think the seeds from China turned out to be Ipomoea hederacea but maybe the ones you received will turn out to be something different...

Can you tell the ID from a photo of the cotyledons? The plants all emerged out of the ground yesterday and can upload a photo of the seedlings.

Joseph - The cotyledons of Ipomoea hederacea and 'wild' Ipomoea nil are generally way too close to differentiate...

You could post any photos that you have though, as maybe there is some feature that is present on the seedlings that you recently germinated that may be 'different'...

TTY,...

Ron

Here's one photo of the cotyledons. They have since opened up so I will get another image here this weekend.

Joseph, what kind of lighting are you going to use?

Ronnie, these were just on the counter under a ceiling fluorescent bulb. I have hobby type fluorescent tubes, two per shelf on my bakers rack shelves. It is barely adequate, so I augment it with a couple portable 100W bulb lamps. My wife would have a cow if I brought in one of those high power/output lighting systems into the sunroom.

Joseph...LOL!! I'm using the fluorescents this year...I noticed a significant difference in the electric bill last year with the HPS lights!!

Joseph, looks like they like the light they have.. looking good so take lots of pics..

It makes me wish that the inside of my house wasn't so dark ... (sigh). I could sure use some color inside especially when the colder weather kills off or slows down the flowering in my garden beds.

I have an arched large front window that faces south. The living room couch is against it. I wonder if there is some way I could hang small pots from it to grow MGs? That is the sunniest window in my entire house. I can't put anything on the floor because the cat and dog would get into it. So it has to be something I could hanging from the walls or window frames.

becky, save your 2 litre pop plastic bottles.. wash and remove label, cut top off, hole punch for cord, string cord into holes, fill with potting medium, i use peat and vermiculite for the hanging planters.. add your seeds, mist spray top,
hang at windows.. same with the smaller clear plastic bottles, u can decorate them even..