Salvia oxyphora is one of my recent favorite salvias. Who can resist its fuzzy flower charms?

Hi Gerris! That's a salvia!? I've never seen such a flower before - so cool!

I love morning glory but I can never afford the beautiful Japanese hybrids. We have the ivy leaf one growing on our property. Welcome to the forum!

- Max

Welcome to the forum. I grow a few brugs.

Max and oscarthecat, thanks for the welcome.

If you want to grow some Japanese morning glory I can help you out if you send 4 forever stamps. I can fill up a mailer with seeds.

Which brugs do you have, oscar? I have a Super Spot, and a few new ones I can't remember their names. Super Spot is a double and sometimes triple pink/red.

Hi gerris,

Welcome to the fun. I'm down by Rock Creek park just outside Washington DC. Everyone will tell you I have sun envy since my yard is mostly shade. But I'm addicted to having good old heavenly blue morning glories, even if I have to acccept slightly fewer blooms than in full sun.

I'm also into brugs although I cut back this year and gave a couple away. I will have rooted cuttings of Inca sun and Angels endless summer (if I remember the name right), which is a yellow and white quadruple or sometime quintuple) at the spring swap if you come down for that.

That Salvia oxyphora is the wildest salvia. Do you save seeds from that?

This post was edited by kimka on Fri, Feb 22, 13 at 10:24

Welcome gerris!

I can't stop growing morning glories unless I remove all my topsoil! I don't know if you would call it an addiction, more like an affliction! :-O

Hik kimka, that salvia doesn't make seeds for me. I can propagate it from stolons or from cuttings. It is an awesome sage to grow. It grows over 4 feet tall and I'm testing a plant I installed in the real ground (i.e., not in a container) to see if it will overwinter in my garden. If you can grow Ipomoea tricolor 'Heavenly Blue' you ought to be able to grow Ipomoea nil and Ipomoea purpurea ok.

If you do not have Super Spot and want a red/pink brug as I described, maybe we could trade? I'd love to grow the yellow / white one you described.

Hi Jim, thanks for the welcome. I do not grow the pest morning glories, for the record. If you have them, I wish you luck getting rid of the tenacious perennials. I am growing annual MGs.

Here is one that made a flower for me this morning (indoors grown plant).

I also like growing gesneriads. I especially love the fuzzy flower/leaf Kohleria and Sinningia varieties.

This summer I'll be growing Ipomoea indica, if any of these sprouted seeds survive. It will be great to see the intense blue flowers of this species.

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Think pink (Japanese morning glory)! Think spring!

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Here is a new one which just started flowering late last week.

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hello gerris2, this gesneriads plant, can it be planted outside in the summer? i've never seen this before, so don't know anything about it. sure looks like the hummingbirds would sure love it. how tall will they grow. every year i plant cardinal climber just for the hummingbirds and always looking for other flowers to feed them. will the plant supply you with seeds each year. if so, that sure makes it a double winner. your morning glorys are beautiful too. i grow moon flower, i'm guessing it is in same family. thanks for showing

luke

Hi Joseph, and welcome!

I love the look of morning glories, and have something of a soft spot for them since I first learned to cross stitch using a pattern depicting a morning glory wreath. I haven't tried to grow them on purpose, though, since until now I've always just had a little garden club plot for veggies, and community gardens often frown on fast-growing invasive vines. (We did get some volunteer plants one year, and they were so lovely that I *almost* didn't mind how they choked out my sweet corn & tomatoes -- if only there had been anywhere good to trellis them!)

Now that I'm about to move to a house in Maryland with an actual yard for the kitchen garden and a porch & foundation planting area for trellising pretties, maybe it'll be time to seek out & welcome the morning glories. I just hope they don't take out the roses that my soon-to-be housemates are bringing over from their current garden!

Everybody's pictures are certainly inspiring! I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I had no idea there were so many varieties, having only seen wild-growing volunteer plants up 'til now.

All it takes is for you to see a big flower Japanese morning glory, which is totally non-invasive being an annual and you'll be addicted. You do have to collect the seed pods so the seeds don't drop on the ground. The big flower species tend to be Ipomoea nil, like the one in the picture shown below. Especially take care to collect the seed pods if you grow a variety of Ipomoea purpurea. This latter species can be a veritable seed making machine.

I simply HAVE to ask, Gerris.... How large are these blooms across? I have some "MG" and moonflower seeds that are a few years old... would love to try them... I guess if I could get them to sprout, that would be a great first step. Your pics are prodding me to try. I'm thinking that it may work if we put up some lattice... hhhmmmm. :)

The diameter varies. The deep blue one, which is Ipomoea nil species, was about 4 or 5 inches in diameter. Ipomoea purpurea tends to be about 3 inches in diameter, at most. Some large flower varieties can get over 6 inches in diameter. I'm still looking for that one to happen haha.

If you have kept the seeds cool and dry the seeds should still be viable.

Luke, I seem to have spaced out responding to your post. I'm very sorry.

I think this gesneriad might do well outdoors if planted out of the sun. It stays a bit tiny for me, less than 6â tall.

I must try cardinal climber. I try to keep the hummingbirds happy to and do so mainly using salvia and a honeysuckle vine.

That's all right, i just noticed the area you live. If they will grow for you, they sure will grow for me. I have a brother in-law that lives in Hockesson. I live in Nj, just over the bridge. Went threw today as had to make a trip to Gap, Pa..

luke

I have a pink Ipomoea nil Japanese-developed morning glory that decided to make another flower after a month of not flowering. I have been growing the plant indoors over the winter and I thought it had finished its cycle of life. I gave the plant some worm poop tea, and it sprang back to life.

The flower is showing some darker streaks of pink which is attractive.

Look at this nice purple morning glory that opened this morning.