Morning Glories 2008 #26

Awesome Becky! The first one is rich and lovely. 80s .... grrrr. I'm counting the months. Rust is bad though in the south huh? People lose their livelihoods because of rust. How can you protect from that? anything?

I hear spraying cayenne on the plants protects them from beetles & other bugs. But ya gotta do it after each hard rain. And I guess your butterflies wouldn't like it much. I also tried the method for japanese beetles where you go out and pick each beetle off the vines, tedious but easy to do, and get a couple dozen. Then you take 'em and put them in a jar of kerosene and hang it near the plants, it gives off the brethren death hormone smell and they stay away. It worked pretty good.

pinching method. one vine huh? wow.

What is your bloom, Shawna? Pretty little thing!

Some interesting ideas to combat bugs. I have heard of using Cayenne. My problem is the bees, butterflies, and hummers. I try not to do anything that would discourage those creatures from my vines. Another reason why I won't use pesticides either. I have never seen beetles on any of my vines, but those nasty looking worms are what I see when I try to collect the seeds from the pods. Those worms/larvae eat the seeds from the inside out. Grrrr ...

The rust is caused from humidity. Which if you looked up "humidity" in the dictionary, you'd see a photo of Florida. LOL! Even spraying Copper Sulfate on the leaves and ground is only a temporary fix unless you do it constantly. I spray the ground really good before I plant the seeds and then again when I see the seeds sprouting and then once more when the vines start climbing. But after that, I leave the vines alone. And of course after a few hard rains, here comes the rust ... (sigh) But it's one of those things you just learn to live with. The rust gets on my Plumerias too. And my Canna. But what the heck ... I garden for butterflies and Hummingbirds, so it's okay in the long run. The critters do frequent my yard and that makes me very happy! :-)

Becky: those blooms are awsome! MGMAN.. love that vine.. keep me on the seeds list too, would ya? I have a back fence it could ramble away on!
Shawna: I love the shape of your bloom.. thanks for the pics.. they was nice to look at tonight..

ok, Becky. call me nuts ~but, is the rust due to the humidity not moving off the plants? I.E., if you used fans, like I use a hose mister for one part of my garden (oh, the irony...) could a
man-made constant breeze blowing past the plants help prevent the rust somewhat??
just thinking out loud.....
:D

The wind and hard rains causes the rust to spread. The humidity makes it grow. We have prime conditions here for rust, which is why it is so bad here. If the climate were dry, I wouldn't have rust at all. Hurricane season and rains causes the rust to just go nuts in my yard. Fortunately, it only attacks certain species of plants. Most of my plants are resistent to rust. But delicate MGs seem to provide a good place for it to spread and thrive. I hate it! Makes my vines look awful.

~Becky~

SORRY! :( ...I was thinking of things i have read about circulation around [plants] helping prevent proms, guess that's limied to certain fungus or mildews, etc., as rust is not a problem here (yeaah right! not even 2 inches of rain this year) don't know / retain info about it though I wish i could split the difference with you and trade a little dry for a bit of humidity, lol
hang tough girl, Your Plants look terriffic rust or not~! At least from what I have seen!!!
:Darren

A few blooms open this morning.

your morning looks like it was Fantastic~!Gardenpom...Becky, wind, huh? I gotta read more on that this week. after I am done TRYing to make a wreath for my Door....
cheers all~:D

''Welcome to the world of MG marketing...''
~Ron, LOLROTF...
:Darren

Y'all know I feed the hummingbirds here. They love the MG blooms, too! I have to change out the sugar water every few days. Well, most the time I don't get to that job until after dark. Tonight I went out at around 10 pm. And of course it is kinda dark out there except for the light from the porch. I am making my way out there and reaching up to get the feeder when my eye caught something sitting on top of the shepherd's hook that the hummer feeder is hanging from. Much to my delight, the owl is back to visit ... not me of course, but I probably have the fruit rats coming into my yard again. Haven't seen any in a very long time. The owls and hawks here seem to keep the population down considerably. They come into my yard because of the seeds at the bird feeder. These little brown owls are the cutest. Though they can be very fierce if threatened. This bird always allows me to come right up to it. Within a 4 feet or so. I ran into the house and grabbed my camera. The owl just sat there while I snapped away. Probably mad because the flash was blinding him. LOL!

And here is a closer shot of this beautiful creature! I know this is not about MGs, but thought y'all would enjoy these photos! :-)

That is Incredible! WoW!!! Amazing bird. He likes his picture taken. Awesome!!!!

Becky will you post these on Carol's thread? The girls'll love it. The conversation was about star's cardinals and my Nuthatches....

Sure thing, Shawna! Glad you enjoyed seeing my little visitor ... :-)

I pulled down the feeder and it flew off. So cleaned out the hummer feeder, refilled it, and rehung it. Just went out to let my dog out for her last potty break of the night and the owl was back perched on the shepherd's hook again. Must be it's new lookout perch at night! LOL! Always an adventure here ... day ... and night! :-)

This message was edited Dec 10, 2008 11:34 PM

aww Becky , what an adorable owl.. u are so lucky to have such a great picture of him!

Becky, thanks for sharing your pic. I know we have owls here but I never get to see one.
The neatest thing I've ever seen was a flying squirrel. In my 60's and have only seen one twice in my lifetime. Tiny little things. Looked more like a chipmunk to me as I recall.

Nice owl photo, Becky!

that's just wonderful becky :-)

tres magnifique! :)
:Darren

Glad y'all enjoyed my owl photos. :-)

Blue Star has been blooming up a storm for me lately. It got down into the 40's last night and this morning I had about 14 blooms on the vine! Unbelievable!!! I wonder if this is a vine that prefers cold weather? I may grow it this summer to see how it adapts to the heat.

Another photo! What a lovely vine!!!

Purple Flaked I. purpurea in the outdoor pot is still producing blooms. Vine is on it's way out. These blooms are so small. I always get a kick out of how small the blooms will get when the weather gets colder. It has also produced a LOT of seeds. Typical of I. purpurea vines. I really like the bloom colors and patterns on this vine and will be growing it again next Spring. I'm not particularly fond of I. purpureas because they become a bit invasive here, but this one is so pretty I will suffer through it taking over my west side fence. Well... it will have to fight with the Flame Vine to do that. And the FV will put up a fight! LOL! They'll have to learn to co-exist in harmony. :-)

wow Becky those are awsome! here are a few picks of the babies..this was the week of the fourth of december

Very nice starter vine, Debra! :-) My window sill is looking more and more "green"! :-) I can't wait to see some blooms!

Look what greeted me this morning!

The pink blooms are yesterday's blooms. I had to 2 clusters of blooms on the picket fence. This is the first cluster at the top of the fence.

Here's the other cluster at the bottom of the fence.

And much to my surprise ... Dai bloomed today! It apparently had blooms before now and I just didn't see them...

Picture is blurry because it is windy.

wow Becky, those are pink and blue? are they on the same vine? how does that happen? your dai is awsome.. is that a JMG?

Debra - Yes the Pink and Blue are on the same vine. The pink are wilting blooms. Often with most MGs, as the flower ages, it will change color. Often an opposite color. Pretty neat, huh? :-)

The Dai as far as I know is Japanese. Arlan or Joseph could better answer that question.

I wish I had a sunroom. I would grow a bunch of JMG vines in pots everywhere along with other plants. I am really enjoying growing the seeds in pots in my bedroom window. Kinda exciting! :-)

Pretty blooms Becky

Lots' of purple blooms open today.

Love your flowers, Becky.

No pinks today at all, just these, but a ton of them.

Thanks, Jackie! :-)

gardenpom - I think the warm weather we've had lately has jump started our vines again! LOL! I am getting blooms on vines that I thought were just about done. Went out today and pruned some of the dead stems/branches from some of the JMG vines. I have noticed that they are sprouting new leaves at the bottom of the vine near the ground. I also see that my mounding MGs (Kawaii and Sun Smiles) are sprouting new leaves too. That bowl of mounding MGs has been going strong since April when I first planted them. That is a record for MGs in my yard (8 months)! :-)

gardenpom - Great shot here!: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5892084

Much to my surprise ... the vines that are sprouting new leaves and blooms from the original vines are: Hanafubuki, Dai, Blue Blizzard, Kawaii, Sun Smiles, and the 2 Lady Yaguruma's Kaleidoscope vines growing up the arbor. Go figure! The first vines to die were the I. hederacea vines. I was not expecting what I am seeing right now...

I also have found quite a few new sprouts (volunteers) from seeds that have fallen. I haven't the heart to pull them up, so I am curious to see how they will do considering we are going into Winter here. LOL!

This message was edited Dec 14, 2008 8:06 PM

Thanks Becky, I thought it was kind of interesting.

I was outside tonight doing my walkabout and was checking out my MGs. I was looking at the Blue Blizzard vine. Leaves are being attacked by rust again. We had some heavy rain a few days ago. When I lifted up one of the leaves, I found a Gulf Fritillary chrysalis attached to the bottom of the leaf. Seems the MGs serve many purposes. Sometimes as shelter for developing butterflies. :-)

This message was edited Dec 14, 2008 8:49 PM

This is what the butterfly will look like.

here is my star of india

this is a little off subject, but here is one of my zinnias

here is my flower bed with zinnias in bloom