Hi Summer...I will have to remember the epsom salts trick. Yes, in the ground next year, sounds like it will improve the look of them. Hi Amanda, nice to see you.. :-) WOW! On whatever it is you are growing! I never heard of a blue moonflower. The only thing I can think of, is that could it be a Japanese Morning Glory? But you say it stays open all day...on a "sunny" day? My moonflowers open at dusk and stay open til early morning unless it is cloudy and then they might stay open to late morning. The morning glories open early in the morning and are closed before 1pm unless it is a "cloudy" day and they might stay open a little longer. Wish I could help, but I haven't got a clue what it could be. If you can borrow a digital camera, you should try to take a photo of it. Especially since you aren't getting seed pods yet. You could take the photo to a nursery and see if they know. If not, you may never solve the mystery..lol. Always something good growing in your garden Amanda.. :-)

Funny that you should ask that! Today I was tidying up in the kitchen and discovered that one of my sweet potatoes was sprouting quite a bit-- I could actually see true leaves! Okay, moving right along: (bad housekeeping, I admit)-- I've decided I'm going to cut a chunk off of the tuber and plant in a hanging basket, just leaving the very very top top top bit of peel at the soil surface-- basically just treat it like a seedling. I'm going to do it tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes! Amanda 'romando'

If you have sandy soil and no precipatation so I suggest that you put in a new soaker and yes put the compost on now. Pruning grapes is an artform so I hope they knew what they were doing, but you'll find out this fall. Are they on wire? Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

I got some ideas for you as I am doing the same myself with part of my back fence(but not on the fence). It is an experiment I just started myself, but I do know how to make a trumpet vine into a tree. I have 6 started right now, but am adding 6 more soon. I had 3 started from seed last year, but one died when I accidently got some ant spray on it. Bug spray kills trumpet vines. I found out the hard way in the past 2 years. One seedling is only 1 foot tall while the other is 4 feet high. I want mostly yellow ones even though I got access to dozens of orange transplants from a big main runner. Making a tree from a trumpet vine takes a lot of prunning and time. First let the vine get to the right heighth you want your tree. You can keep them seperate about a foot and a half apart. Best use an 8 foot picket fence post. Train the vine to grow straight up using plastic ties. Just snug enough to hold it in place but not too choke it. I'm having mine go to 6 feet. One of mine should be there by end of growing season. Next spring when I see first signs of growth I will cut off the top above 6 feet. This will cause the vine to shoot out from the sides of vine. Do not let shoots grow too far out and get too long. If you get muliple shoots I will trim off one or 2 each day. If shoots get too big they can offset the growth of your shape of the main stem that you want to look like a tree trunk. Don't over prune at a young age. Usually if I look everyday, and if I see a new growth come out I'll nipp it off within a couple day. Slowly nipping these off will cause the main stem to get wider and woodier. It may take a good 10 years to get it to a good thick diameter. To transform in tree shape takes time and patience, so I would do it with a variety of them, so at least to get a few good ones. Once you have a good woody trunk you can stretch out a wire horizontally to about where you would like to form a couple branches and let a couple shoots grow out there. Let them and only those 2 grow out all year. They should probably flower as well that year. Next spring cut those shoots to the desired length you want your first 2 braches, and so on until you got your desired looking shape of tree. Depending on how fast your vine grows you may aquire tree shape in less than 10 years. I've seen some get there within 5 years. Hope that helps you out some. Anyone else trying to make some trumpet trees can share your experience and maybe we can all benefit from it. Glad to share. Have fun...