Fran, it's very well possible that your seeds have been crossed by the bees. You may need to start from fresh seed. Those little buggers don't just make honey! :) Arum

I can't explain the change in color of your moon flowers. But...if the seeds did cross-pollinate with another impomea, the resulting cross would not show unless you saved the seeds and grew them in subsequent years.

So I disagree with arum. If that were possible, for example, tomato plants grown beside other types of tomatoes, would have different tomatoes on the same plant within the same growing season. That just doesn't happen.

Plants can and do display different characteristics at different times relative to weather,various other environmental factors and the genotype.

Ipomoea are not tomatoes and in fact the physical appearence of the fruit capsule(!) can be altered if a true hybridization has taken place,which will appear different on the same parent plant,from those capsules in which hybridizational fertilization has not occured., ...I'm just waiting for some botanical nerds to make the 'orthodox' disagreement regarding this...be sure you know your Convolvulaceae(!) hybrids(!) before disagreeing,please...first hand experience helps...

The Ipomoea tricolor cultivar "Flying Saucers" can look like the "Blue Star" cultivar when the the blue pigmentation does not appear as strongly on the limb inbetween the primary corolla folds...this can happen when the life cycle of the plant starts to wind down or be caused by other environmental factors...crosses(not hybrids) with "Blue Star" could also play a part in causing the blue pigment not to appear as strongly as it would in a "Flying Saucers" that was not diluted with "Blue Star" color genes.

The flaked gene which is displayed in the "Flying Saucers" cultivar can cause various levels of pigmentation to occur in different flowers on the same plant on the same day,just as it does in the flaked strain of Ipomoea purpurea...

Regards,
Ron

Thanks Ron for the info. Makes perfect sense to me. After labor day the temps started to get cooler, the sun was not as strong as it had been and was not providing as much sunlight on the vine as it had during the summer.
The seeds where from a commercial pack, not from a trade that may have had some seeds mixed in them.
I'm used to seeing blue star without any faded streaks in the flower, and if you look carefully at the second pic, you'll see faded streaks as if the flower was really fading away.
Another thing I noticed with the morning glories was when they opened and how long they stayed open after laborday.
The ones on my railing, which was in partial sun all summer, opened around 2-3AM. No I wasn't awake looking, my daughter, the 22 year old teacher, came home one night and they where all opened and had to wake me to take a look at them, because "Mom, there's something terribly wrong with the flowers on the railing, their blooming in the dark and it's creepy, supposed to greet me on the way to work." they stayed open until about 4 in the afternoon, sometimes even later. the ones that where in full sun in the back on the fence also opened later in the morning and stayed open all day.
Sure was a beautiful sight to see them all day instead of early in the morning.
Ron, a question, I collected some seeds from this morning glory, which produced very few seeds, and kept them separate from each other. so have 4 seeds from the first bloom and 4 from the blooms after labor day. What do you think they will bloom next year?
Fran

Ron, tomatoes wasn't a good analogy. Sorry, I'm more into growing vegetables. What I was trying to say is that cross-pollination does not affect the color of the flowers this season. Crosses show up only if seeds from those plants are saved and grown the following year.

Hello,
aka_peggy - " Crosses show up only if seeds from those plants are saved and grown the following year."
For the purposes of this discussion,I'll second that motion.

littleonefb - I don't think that the seeds are going to produce any more variation than what you've already seen.
The color changes that you seen occur in your Flying Saucer were most likely the result of the seasonal changes affecting the metabolism of the plant and not something genetic that was particular to those specific blooms that would be passed on...

What I have seen,is that seeds collected from the very first seedpods to ripen will have a tendency to flower a bit earlier,and if you keep growing plants from the very first pods to ripen,then you should notice a gradual shift towards plants that bloom earlier in the season.

If your plants only produced a couple of seedpods,it sounds like you have a partial self-infertility factor going on and should probably add in a couple of Flying Saucers from a different batch to increase the genetic diversity of your stock,that should result in more seeds production...

I hope my offerrings were of some help...
TTY,
Ron

All I can say is that both flowers are beautiful.
I hope I can have blooms that stay open all day!

Ron, You are truly an expert! Just how many of these beauties do you grow?! Do you start them inside?
Thank you

skippy05 - I grow as many as I 'can' at my residence in Netcong with the limited space here that gets enough sun,although I do grow additional plants with local friends and with those whom I network with across the country...

I do start some of the MG's that I grow inside,but I usually wait until the outdoor weather is very close to being frost free,since there's only a couple of windows in this house that get full sun...

Many people enjoy success starting MG's earlier indoors by using supplemental electric lighting...

The somewhat diluted coloration of the "Flying Saucers" pictured above that starts looking like "Blue Star" can also sometimes look the same way the entire season,but if you look at the area between the primary folds where the darker blue pigment forming the star pattern is,you will notice the prescence of the darker streaks...this type of darker streaking in the area between the primary folds is common in "Flying Saucers",but is very rarely(if ever) seen in unadulterated "Blue Star"...

I'm suggesting taking note of the streaking/spotting feature in between the 'star' pattern because pure "Blue Star" cultivars will not exhibit this type of streaking...and the presence or abscence of the streaking inbetween the primary folds can be used as an indicator to distinguish a pure "Blue Star" from a "Flying Saucers" that is not displaying alot of the blue pigment in between the primary folds...

Thanks for the well intentioned compliment of 'expert',but I have an aversion to being called an 'expert'...I enjoy sharing from my experience and if anyone likes the content of my postings,I would like to suggest that a simple appreciative 'Thank You' to be well in order and most graciously liberal...

Enjoy(!)...

TTY,...

Ron