3/11/2007

Reversal of fortune.

Remember how I was having trouble germinating Ipomoea alba?

IMG_7989

Now what am I going to do? Please tell me you want one. Or two.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Are you trying to say that you'd give them away? Are you kidding? Plant 'em ALL! *GRIN*

Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener) said...

Definitely. Plant 'em all. If you think you don't have room, plant them in neighbor's yards. Plant them in tree-pits. Along fences. Anywhere people will be walking at night.

The idea of using the building to create a warmer microclimate is good. As much sun as you can give them.

Have you had success getting them to bloom before? My experience is that that only bloom well about one year out of every two or three, and only when there are some long, warm/hot stretches during the summer or fall.

chuck b. said...

I've never grown these before. Nor have I ever seen them grown, to the best of my knowledge. The description in a seed catalog sold me. I have really low expectations for this plant. So I can't be disappointed, right?

Unknown said...

Good point... either you'll be right, or you'll be pleasantly surprised. :)

Seriously, I would plant them all, even if they're all on the same trellis or two. The foliage is pretty--like morning glory, only a darker green (mine were, anyway) with a bluish tinge. Mine only flowered sporadically at the end of the growing season, but the foliage is handsome in quantity, IMHO. (Of course, this is in Cleveland, not Cali.)

chuck b. said...

You two are the Ipomoea cheer squad! Right after I read your post this afternoon, I had the revelation about the perfect thing to do with these seedlings.

You'll have to stay tuned.

Anonymous said...

Yeah... we should have warned you. These are one-seed-one-pot plantings. Wait till the regular leaves open... these seedlings are LARGE. You'll have to repot pretty quick 'cause these little pots are gonna get full of roots.

You might want to thin even VERY soon. You'll be surprised how big they get upon emmergence. Those cotyledon leaves are HUGE. I think they are folded like four times. It is like putting up a spinnaker on sailboat. Those leaves just keep unfolding.

And then they are going to vine... send up tendrills. If I remeber last year, they'll send up up one long arm at first and try to grab something. Once they've grabbed, they'll branch/spread out.

In terms of footprint, they won't take much room at all. They are almost as wide now as they'll ever be (obviously, the leaves need to open... but the point is, they don't "shrub out" if that makes sense. But they will take over a trellis. They are going to go up, up, up.

In my experience they typically stall awhile. They'll go nicely for a few weeks - they'll look like they are doing great. Growing. And then nothing. They don't fail... they just "stop." And then, the very minute after you've given up hope and convinced yourself that you'd done something wrong, they'll shoot up an arm, grab somethinga nd take off.... Flower flower flower. Might be the climate here though.

I'm about to go through the same thing with my Lab lab purpureas. I have the seeds but is too early. And once you turn these on, you can't turn 'em off.

They look good.

chuck b. said...

Oh, the leaves are out. Well, the cotyledon leaves are out. The true leaves are little fuzzy furls in the crotch of the cotyledon leaves. I might divide the seedlings this weekend.