HAPPY BIRTHDAY Berky

Shawna - I was able to spend my birthday with my dh and 3 children. We went out for cheap Mexican dinner and had a lot of laughs. My mother wasn't up to joining us. (Though she is not a big fan of Mexican food either.) It shall be interesting to see if a Morning Glory Society can be formed. I, too, can't contribute much other than photos, data, and seeds. :-)

Love that blooming vine! Was that one that you grew outside? Or was this one that you grew inside last winter? Are you going to grow some indoors again this winter? I'm gonna try my first indoor grow-outs! :-) Just can't go a whole winter without MG blooms! LOL! I'm so addicted ... lol!

Happy Birthday Becky, sorry I'm late. Glad you had a good time with your family.

Helena

i just pulled my gallon pots out. I'm gonna make an incubator room again for the seeds you sent me, just carving out space for that. I dunno why but cold weather makes me really want Morning Glories the most. And they're so easy to grow inside. I have better luck with Nils inside than outside. (although there is a short span of time at the end of the season in my garden when MGs were the only things blooming after a scorching hot & dry spell in August) They seem to like being controlled and warmer than my zone (and protected from all my volunteer purpureas).

I wanted to tell you that Best Nest is also a good place for the spiral trellises and other small interesting inexpensive ones, but I like the idea of the expandable spirals you posted on the other thread. (I have spiral trellises laying everywhere! always learnin' eh? The Nils look really elegant on these. even if it's just one flower. sometimes especially if it's only one. ya know?

Thanks Helena!

Shawna - What is the spiral trellis you have shown in the pot in the photo you posted above this post? Looks small and perfect for what? ... a "gallon" pot? I will check out Best Nest. Thanks for that tip!

My front window in my bedroom gets sun and is so warm during the day and stays warm at night even with the cold weather we've been having here. I keep thinking it might fool the vines into thinking it is summer! LOL! But ... if that is the case, my window sill won't be big enough to grow them as they mature! LOL! I know what you mean about wanting to grow MGs in the winter time! Me, too! ;-)

here is a few of the Best Nest trellises. they come in different sizes. The small green ones i used for kikyous and ten tens and smaller vines. The biggest ones are like 4 & 5 ft. and i used them in the yard with clematis. They're super stable and elegant. I'd love a whole row of them one day.

here's one out in the garden with Dr Ruppel clematis.

Shawna those are awsome! I can't find a Best Nest here.. I love the way that works with the clematis too..
I just use sticks and floral wire.. will have to get some of those spiral things when I can afford it!
Becky: Latest pics of the Purple Blizzard Plant from the seeds you gave me..
My son moved an old curio downstairs to the basement ( freezer room) for me and I put all my vines in there for awhile..

Shawna - WOW! What a set-up! Nice obelisks! Love it! Well ... hmmm... looks like the window sill is not going to be the answer for me! LOL! Or I need to run the vines around the inside of the window when they get long! LOL! I don't know why I was thinking so naively. I know how MGs grow! Why I thought they would be smaller, shorter vines ... what am I thinking????!!!! Ackkkk! I think I was looking at too many Japanese festival set-ups! LOL!

I do have some grow-lights (w/bulbs) like yours shown clamped to the ceiling. I don't know how I can use them inside the house though. I have no room actually for something large like your pots. And no windows in my garage to warm it from the cold. Though those lights do put out some heat... I'm going to have to think about this and how to grow some of the MGs maybe in my garage... Thanks for bringing me back to reality! LOL! I have a cat and dog who would both probably get into any planters if I had them in the house on the floor ... which is where I would prefer to grow them.

I just don't have the room anywhere to grow them indoors safely. Though I am definitely going to grow a couple of vines in the window anyway. Probably 2 or 3. But that's about all I have room for now that I am being realistic! LOL!

Debra - I may try your sticks and floral wire! Maybe instead of growing long vines, I can grow really short bushy ones by wrapping them around and around! LOL! Your Purple Blizzard starters look great! Don't forget to use Bloom Booster on them! :-)

Becky, last year I had those hanging water bottle planters all over the windows, they are light, and the vines wraped around the planter strings, and I srung wires all around ( inside the window curtains) and they vined just fine.. I started those in end of Feb and replanted them outside the second week of April

I also use the clamp on lights... only in the basement.. the south and east windows give plenty of growing light here..

no really, they are smaller vines inside and they're much less trouble than they sound. If you can get a shelf across a window, or yes debra, baskets, and let them just hang down.... Also remember when you spin them around the spiral, a 10' vine is now only 3 or 4 ft. What's also good (to me) is that you get to spin them around your supports and manipulate them every day. They adapt to their indoor conditions by not growing quite so huge as outside in the ground under the Florida summer sun. (!!!)

You can prune and spin and knot and control them any way you want! Mix 'em up too. By color or Plant a low bloomer near leggy ones etc... I saw some fine examples of japanese MG conservatory growing pics somewhere. But a sunny window is really good enough once established, especially with the special sea weed and bloom booster concoction you brew up for their dinner! I just use the blue bulbs for starting seeds and i keep those warm, but then they get bigger and do great in sunny windows. Then back outside in May and the goal is that they're fully mature by then.

i do also have a HPS light but they all wouldn't fit under it so I used all my windows last year and never had to endure a winter morning without a bloom. (*wink & grin) Do your vines all die out there? or are there any that go year round for you?

I don't know about becky, but here they die outside.. fwozen into paper .. i call it..but I collect seeds from the main vines and save for winter sowing and the next year..

I think that the only perennial MG that I have is the MG Bush (Ipomoea carnea). I understand that it will come back in my zone year after year. This is my first year growing one, so I don't know for sure. All my other vines die out after about 4-6 months depending on when the rust fungus attacks them. I shouldn't have the rust problem indoors as long as I use sterile potting soil. :-)

I'll take your word for it, Shawna, that the vines won't get quite as big as they do outside in the ground. I do want some blooming inside this winter! My front bedroom window gets quite warm, so I do think the vines will think it is the middle of summer if they are on a shelf on the window sill.

Most of my current grow-out are dying. The colder temps have really done a number on them. I'm just awaiting the seeds to ripen and then will pull the dead vines up and toss over the fence! :-) Blue Star and Moonflower are still blooming and seem to be okay for now. All the I. nils are pretty toasted from the cold snaps we've been getting.

I think I get sad when I go outside now, I took a stroll and looked at everything to see any kind of life out there and found lots of surprises under the leaves I have piled.. but it is still gray, dry, brittle, dark, cold, and dying or dead out there now..I did find a green, vining kind of shrub / vine that I can not remember for the life of me what it is. No ID tags.. it looks REAlly good tho! LOL
Becky: I had to move the little vines out of the curio as they grew too tall overnight...

Debra - LOL! Yes ... those vines always amaze me at the growth they can put on in a 24 hour period! Gotta love em!