Yes. THANK GOODNESS IS RIGHT JODI! I was just at HD lastnight when I noticed all knds of bulbs, seeds, and many spring items coming in! Guess what I saw surrounding all the seeds and bulbs like the great wall of China? Big bags of Miracle Grow...lol Yup. Somebody is making tons of money on that stuff. Not from me anyway. By the way, I also saw tons of houseplants, mostly all of them left for dead! All were so dehydrated, including the beautiful Hoya's they had just gotten two weeks ago. The mix in those pots was peat based and hard as a rock! They were also infested with mites! My goodness, I will never take a plant home from them this time of year. We are happy you are watching yourself and not pushing anymore huge piles in wheel barrows. Lets's bring in the warm temps. Suppose to be in the 50's by next weeks end and finally, just maybe I can finally draw some fresh water from my 30 gallon barrel that has been frozen since December. I can't even see any of my bushes or shrubs under all this snow. I can't wait just to see the ground again.:-) Xuan: I would love to see some pics of your flowering bulbs. I would also like to say to you that I am so happy to see that you are no longer getting any snow..lol -3 degrees this am with temps in my popup at 40. I hope to God that my Hoya's make it ok since I forgot to bring them in. It should be warmer from here on out, thank God. Have a happy Friday everyone! Mike

Japanese style MG's are best started indoors and after soaking or using the paper towel method and (in temperatures in the high 70's to high 80's) , check every day or so for those that have sprouted. Germination ph of 7 or 6.5 should be ideal and 6.5 is an ideal ph for the growing medium. Transplant the sprouts into containers (carefully bury the root part while leaving the embryonic leaves above the surface) where they will receive enough moisture to prevent them from drying out and sunlight , but not so strong that it dries the seedlings out quicker than they can maintain hydration. A strong indirect sun will likely provide enough light to get the seedlings on their way to growing into progressive stages of maturity. You can gradually transplant into larger containers and eventually into the ground with proper gradual acclimation into drier and / or conditions of more intense sun. There is definitely some individual experimentation involved to find out what works out best for you in your particular local environment , because (e.g.,) what is direct sun in Rockport,TX may be much more intense than direct sun in a higher latitude. I think that using containers may be the best method for ground that is high in salt content as you have much better control over the growing medium in containers. You must keep the JMG's well watered because they are definitely not as hardy as their more wild ancestors. You can place the containers next to whatever trellis you have for the MG's to climb up onto and larger containers are better than smaller ones as they retain more water (especially if a water reserve is used underneath the container) and larger containers help to prevent the roots from being over-heated by the sun hitting the container , because when the MG's are planted directly in the ground , the roots are not subjected to the same type of heat as in containers. The use of light reflective containers and / or light reflective paint , aluminum foil (Holiday natural looking Green) or water proof mylar (industrial grade for high humidity hydroponics or outside applications) covering the outside of the containers helps to reflect the burning rays of the sun and helps prevent containers from overly drying out. The use of a mulch (such as bark) as a growing medium cover can further reduce premature drying from the intense sun. Hope something I shared may provide food for thought and be of some help. regards, Ron P.S.- I'd like to suggest that you try some of the various Youjiro (Yaguruma or MaiSugata) , as they tend to be a bit hardier and tend to produce more flowers than the pure I.nil.

Your vines appear to be Ipomoea purpurea (since you say this is a mix, you may find another species mixed in when flowering really gets underway); pink flowers with darker stripes and a white center is a common pattern in this species. I've seen this variety sold under several different names by seed companies and eBay sellers. The other major gardening site has pictures of it under the name Pink Rambler. Ipomoea purpurea varieties mix freely among themselves. This species produces a lot of pollen and is very attractive to bees. If you see any unusual types in your planting you want to be certain of having in the future, you will need to bag or tie off a few of the flowers before they open, mark the resulting pods, and save these seeds. Even then, in this case it isn't certain they will come true since your current vines originated from open pollinated seeds you saved from a mix that itself was probably from an open pollinated source.

I would say if you did nothing there might be a slight risk, but if you watered in well it would have filtered in the gaps sufficiently, and every time you water would fill in even better. As GardenGal said, she never uses chopsticks and has never had issues. I use chopsticks because it was how I was taught. Also, I use Gritty mix which has much less organic matter to fill in the gaps. 1/8 to 1/4 inch chunky bonsai soil doesn't water in well, so it needs pushed into the crevasses well, 5-1-1 flows into gaps much, much better. That being said, as I previously stated, you can do the chopstick thing at anytime without having to do anything else (to do anything else would just cause undue stress to the plant at this time). Either way I think you'll be fine.