From commentor JeffG:
I thought this would be interesting. It’s a Japanese morning glory called Split Second bought from Select Seeds.
Would love it to self seed. The morning glories seeds I like never winter over. I will be collecting the seeds from this.
The Spousal Unit adores morning glories; I always have trouble mentally separating the cultivated vine from its close relatives in the bindweed and kudzu clans.
Since it’s getting hard to find even the common blue Ipomoea plants in local garden centers, I’ve encouraged him to try starting his own from seed. I know the seeds have to be scarified and pre-soaked, but how hard are they to cultivate indoors, given that pre-start?
It’s been an extremely rainy month around here, and I realize this is not something I can complain about in a forum full of Westerners suffering from tragically severe drought conditions. Although the yard looks more draggled and neglected than ever, my tomato plants haven’t suffered as much as I feared, yet. They’re not flowering, of course, and some of the fruit that had already set was devoured by mammalian or avian pests, but so far only a couple of plants are succumbing to early blight. Goddess, am I glad we don’t have to rely on what I grow to survive…
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What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
raven
We worked on Bohdi’s shrine yesterday. We found a fun trophy from a dog show that looked enough like him that it fit. The granite plaque came and we’re happy with it as well. I got in trouble because the boss lady had some gigantic flower right in front of it so she begrudgingly moved it.
raven
He’s between Raven and Lil Bit, this is pre-flower relocation.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: He’s home.
Baud
@raven: It’s quite lovely.
satby
@raven: Beautiful. You gave them wonderful lives full of love.
hells littlest angel
I got my morning glory seeds from Baker Creek, and after a 24-hour soaking, they sprouted with a real lust for life, like they just couldn’t wait to start crawling up a fence.
satby
@hells littlest angel: I planted my first morning glories at the Michigan place, not knowing some previous owner had also planted some. Never knew about scoring or soaking them. The first year, I was surprised that the pink morning glories I planted turned out to be purple ?. By the second year my pink ones grew with the purple ones and from then on they self seeded and mixed gloriously. My back deck was a hummingbird heaven. My only problem was trimming them back from other plants, but that wasn’t hard if you kept up with it once a week or so.
Van Buren
@raven: You have given me ideas. We had a plaque for Jackson but it fell over and broke. Since we were in the process of ordering one for Kendall, we reordered the Jackson plaque-though for some reason they want to change the font and the quote?!?….but now I see what I need to do to make sure the plaques do not get broken.
raven
@Van Buren: Lil Bit’s is much thinner and doesn’t have an actual picture of her on it but we like it too.
Charluckles
Visiting my wife’s ancestral home in southern Italy we were delighted to see morning glories being used as a ground cover. Heck, an everything cover. There were entire houses and large yards just engulfed by morning glories.
At home once our patch was established they now self-seed and are largely carefree.
One of my favorite things is to sneak out just before the sunrises and watch the shift change between the night pollinators and the day pollinators.
debbie
@raven:
I love that you do this!
Kay
They’re easy to grow from seed. I don’t scarify anything- I use heating pad(s) on low underneath old cookie sheets with pots I make out of newspaper using this pot mold. When the seeds are up I take them off the heat and put them under ordinary fluorescent light hoods which I balance on bricks. When they get taller I add a brick to put the light higher. I have two old heatings pads I use. One is warmer than the other but it doesn’t seem to make any difference.
I’ve grown Morning Glories so long I don’t have to plant them anymore. They reseed to probably 2x as many as I want so I pull half up. They’re a little aggressive I suppose but that crazy-intense blue-purple is worth it. Years ago I screwed “pot hooks”- those small screwed hooks – into a section of fence so that’s where I put them. The hooks are enough support for them to twine all over the fence. I thread them in when they’re just starting and they go from there. My middle son gardens and he’s a better builder than I am- he put his beneath a section of wooden lattice he put in a frame on either side of his tiny cement patio. The frame has sunk posts to hold it up. You can even grow them in big containers. Give them something to climb on in the container- I have used the metal frames from yard signs- they don’t need much – they’ll twine around anything.
debbie
@raven:
What is that tall orange flower? There’s one of them in the neighborhood.
JPL
@raven: Thank you for sharing this, and what wonderful memories.
Jeffery
I soak the seeds overnight then fold a paper towel (two folds) into a square. Wet it. Give it a light squeeze to keep it damp. Put the towel on a dish unfold it halfway. Put the drained seeds in it. Cover them with the damp towel. Cover that with clear plastic wrap and put it in a sunny window. They usually germinate in a few days. I check daily. Then put them directly into the ground when they just sprout.
Pou could put them into individual pots to grow on to a size to know for sure what they are then plant them into the ground.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
satby
@debbie: Looks like an Asiatic lily.
Gvg
We have had too much rain for weeks and then Monsoon Elsa topped it off. The tomato plants seem to have been finished off. Several looked grey before they died and I found a horn worm on one of the last ones. Looks like I will just be improving the soil this year, better luck next year.
raven
Dunno, I’ll ask.@debbie:
O. Felix Culpa
Good morning! Bohdi’s shrine is beautiful. The flowers in our garden are a bit more sparse, living in the desert and all, but my pineleaf penstemon and marigolds are blooming and I have some massive sunflowers towering up. On the veggie side, I have chard! chard! chard! plus bok choy and many radishes. Anybody want some? We’re eating them as fast as we can. My tomatoes are growing tall, but not a lot of flowering yet except on the sungolds. Snow peas a bust this year, it seems, but I have bush beans and cowpeas and other dry beans that I’m trying for the first time. Zucchinis coming on and it looks like my eggplants might produce this time. It’s a mystery every summer as to what will flourish and what…will not.
stinger
@raven:
That’s beautiful. Maybe you can do mine someday…?
stinger
I start morning glories in water for 2-3 days (not just overnight–this way I don’t need to nick them) until they sprout a little, then plant them in soil-less mix through the cotyledon stage to 2-3 sets of true leaves. Then plant them outside. I don’t know about indoor cultivation — they are VINES and grow about 8 feet or more high, with massive twining and side branching and twisting around each other and anything else within reach.
I do like to alternate morning glories and moonflowers (started the same way) along the supports, so as to have flowers night and day!
oldgold
In the experimental section of my garden,West of Eden, thanks to my professional level of procrastination, I may achieved a horticultural break though – how to defeat June bugs.
Plant in July.
The other benefits:
1) avoids the labors of harvest; and,
2) don’t feel compelled to eat any Green garden vegetables;
3) the deer have something to nose around in Winter; and,
4) it provides my neighbors Dee Dee Plorable, and Neandra Tall plenty to shake their MAGA heads about.
stinger
@oldgold:
Brilliant!
Richard
@stinger:
I love growing morning glories. I just soak the seeds for a day or two in tepid water until they begin to sprout. It is easier to wait until it is warm enough to plant them and put directly where they will grow. The tender seedlings are vulnerable to everything from slugs to mice. So have a plan and plant a few extra.
One of my favorite morning glories is Cardinal Climber. Ipomoea x sloteri. Because the small scarlet little trumpet flowers last all day and hummingbirds love them. They have cool foliage too.
Moonvine. Ipomoea alba. Is also very cool but it needs a little more water. It blooms at night and has a nice smell. The large flowers remind me of datura blossoms.