qian niu zi - Chinese mg herbs

any of you guys tried growing these from seeds? I searched it up on the net and it says that most are a mix of purpureas and nils. I was thinking maybe they sell them as seeds in those Chinese herb stores/groceries.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/207902691/Semen_Pharbitidis_morning_glory_seeds_qian.html

wow .. so we are all growing medicinals as well as beautifuls! ;D cool!

is the herbal preparation made from oven dried seeds? I wonder how they process the seeds before they are packaged?

hmmmm not sure if they're oven dried. I looked up kaldana on google, and some people sell the seeds as is (no pre-treatment of any sort).

They also sell the powdered form, I guess you can put them in your broth to make you go you know where lol.

I've been too lazy to go to the asian area where they will most likely have a herbal medicinal store, it's too cold and my nose is running hehehe.

They're aka Kaladana http://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=1871
Pharbitis nil I think and P. semen. But I'm confused because some sources say they are a mixture of I. hederacea and I. nil. But some say they're just I. hederacea

Now according to horizonherbs (above link), their mixture is just I. hederacea. I see from the picture (correct me if I'm mistaken - I'm still kinda new to mg sp. id-ing) that it is I. hedracea based on the leaf shape. And it also says that the mixture MAY have some white blooms....soooooooooooo maybe one can get a rare white hederacea? (the white ones are rare right?). The pink colour of I. hederacea itself is not as dominant as those that we commonly see with most hederacea which is coloured blue/purple.

I would like to purchase and try these seeds from horizonherbs, but first (because I'm cheap....errr.. frugal) maybe I can look at some chinese herb store and look for whole qian niu zi seeds and save on shipping.

But if you're right Joseph about the preparation of the seed, if they are roasted before they are sold, then I just wasted my money lol. Let's just hope they're not as expensive as dried ginseng roots and those bird's "nest" thingies.

This message was edited Feb 1, 2009 12:29 AM

This message was edited Feb 1, 2009 12:30 AM

They appear to be viable seeds to me, Eliz!

The leaves look like Ipomoea hederacea, but the flower appears to be a I. purpurea flower. All the flowers I have seen before of I. hederacea have been blue with pale throat. It should be interesting to see what yours comes up to be!

This company has some cool plant seeds. Thanks for letting us know about them!

Joseph

Horizon herbs carries whatever the suppliers in India supply them with...the seeds are typically very old and very dried out...

The flower in the photo here
http://www.horizonherbs.com/images/products/Pharbitis_lobeleaf_morning_glory_chinese.jpg
is Ipomoea purpurea...the leaves may be
I.purpurea var.diversifolia
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/772071/
or the I.purpurea may be growing intertwined with either I.hederacea or I.nil...

The seeds offered by the Chinese suppliers are most likely going to be the most common types that are available to them in the largest quantities at the cheapest price...but you can certainly try your luck...


TTY,...


Ron

MY... at 1000 tons a week supply line.. I bet there are a few interesting mutants lurking there..

I asked horizon herbs what colour their blooms are for kaladana and they said it's the colour that you see on the site. I'm still kinda interested/curious.

I think I will be out hunting tomorrow at chinatown/downtown see what they have

heres what you get from horizon.... i've put a couple of seeds in soak last night and they are swelling up already... they look like i nil to me but we will see....

Have any luck in your hunting / gathering for seeds, Eliz?

i put two seeds each of horizon and another lot of ipomoea hederacea from an Austrailia source in soak and although the horizon swelled up almost straight away... they haven't progressed any further and look a bit dodgey... the austrailian source has sprouted and look fine.

Colin

Eliz, plz stop by and pick me up will ya? I wanna go..

the horizon seeds have sprouted and are doing fine... i'll put a picture up soon.

Nope sorry Joseph. I went to 2 supermarkets and looked at their herbs section and there's none there. I checked out 3 herb and medicine stores in the east end 1 does not sell them and the other two sells them in powder form -_-. The medicine stores up here (close to where i live) are located in a sparsely fashion. Maybe downtown core chinatown, I'll have more of a chance finding them...

Still have to go to chinatown west end and downtown core. Still have lots to check out. =) We also have Little India, I'll also check out kaladana.

Colin - can't wait for yours to bloom =) please remember to post a picture up.

Debra - come up here we'll show you around =) you're so far away from TO =/. Maybe I'll take some pictures of chinatown (downtown) so you can see them...give you a little bit of Toronto....

Eliz

Little update on the chinese herb seeds; They do not sell them in herbal stores in Canada. You would have to go to a chinese herbal doctor. =(. I've been looking around herbal stores and none of them carry morning glory seeds at all.

Eliz