You all might want to check out the difference between morning glories and field and hedge bindweed. Bindweed, which looks an awful lot like small morning glories, is pretty nearly impossible to eradicate, once established, even with Roundup. It has been found quite alive with roots buried many feet underground for 20 years. The problem is that the two vine-varieties can cross-pollinate resulting in great vigor. While true morning glories can be eradicated with treatment like careful uprooting and seed-pod destruction, nobody has found a way to successfully eradicate bindweed once it gets established on a widespread basis in a field or other large area. So, njmomma, you won't get much support from gardeners who've had to deal with bindweed or crosses of bindweed with morning glories. MGs can be lovely, with all those colors, but I'll just enjoy the pictures. I've been battling bindweed for years at this location where I'm living now.

I'm in Quebec also. I planted my seeds on May 14th and on May 20th I had sprouts out on two 'Evening Glory Ipomoea'(Moonflower). I'm still waiting to see any sprouts from Heavenly Blue & Blue Star. Before I planted the seeds I soaked them in water for 24 hours. Because the Moonflower seeds were the size of peas & easy to handle I nicked their seed coats with nail clippers prior to soaking. That was the first time I've done that & it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined and I think it really helped. They are the first to sprout even though I've read they can be tricky to grow. I didn't nick the others because they were substantially smaller & I thought soaking would be enough. Maybe I was wrong thinking that since they still show now signs of germination 9 days after planting. I've got my fingers crossed on one hand and the car keys in the other to run to buy more seeds!! So I would say soak your seeds for 24 hours to soften the seed coats and/or scratch or nick their seeds coats to help them to germinate before you plant 'em. All the best!

littleonefb - The Ipomoea purpurea that shows some degree of a blue,purple or pinkish star on a white background has been marketed by commercial companies as "Milky Way" or "Shiva"...the degree of intensity of the starring and the coloration can be affected by environmental factors like soil and overall weather conditions,especially temperature variations...genes for various pigments may also affect the way the gene for spotting shows up... The name of "white Snowman" or just "Snowman" was used to describe a type where the color pigment was suppossed to be limited to just a roundish 'spot'... The cultivars that will consistently display more blue or pink along with a consistent size/shape of the colored area will be difficult to isolate and to find. I personally don't think there is any 'real' difference in the names that are being used to market these I.purpureas showing the gene for spotting... The Ipomoea nil "Chocolate' and the 'Chocolate Silk' have another somewhat entangled history as the genes for any of the features displayed by one can be present or easily picked up from the other...similar to the Ipomoea purpureas,an almost infinite degree of merging of features can be encountered,confounding 'definitive' ID's...urban misconceptions about the nature of the coloration(s) displayed have added to the list of about 10 different features now attributed to variations on the 'Chocolates'... The situation is similar to the Ipomoea purpureas mentioned above and that is any of the characteristics attributed to any of the 'Chocolates' can be carried or picked up from the other,so isolating and stabilizing any features can be difficult if not impossible... The 'Chocolate' as pictured by the T&M catalog is rarely encountered and even the packets from T&M mostly produced variations on the 'Chocolate' theme...mutations from the "Rose Silk" offered by Park Seed,produced another range of 'Chocolate' variations... Chocolates of various shades with and without a white outer edge,a darker inner star pattern,color streaking,various degrees of flat matte look or irridescence and the prescence or not of variegation in the leaves is often used to define the various 'Chocolates'... I prefer to use a detailed description of what the plants I have display and to hopefully receive an accurate description of what another may have to offer for sale or trade...the features can be so overlapping that I personally find that exact definitions for either the 'regular' 'Chocolate' or the 'Chocolate Silk' may still be premature as of this point...someone else may have a different perspective... Good Luck(!)... P.S. I'm still working on trying to help/encourage in people an interest to tell the difference between the most common species(!)like Ipomoea purpurea,Ipomoea tricolor,Ipomoea nil and Ipomoea hederacea and a few others...there are so many honest mistakes on the web that just get copied and multiplied...and I think it is a very helpful tool to be able to tell the different species,before you can accurately tell the differences in the cultivars...the keys to ID the species are actually very easy(!),but people just think it is more complicated than it is,and get afraid to learn a few some simple features that would make alot more sense out of a perpetuating chaos... Since different species will not naturally cross fertilize,knowing and growing different species would eliminate most concerns about unintended crosses...

spiderwoman - You had mentioned "I have a couple of volunteer vines that I was sure was lavendar moonvine because the vines have soft thorns along the main vines. When they began blooming however, the flower is closer to Grandpa Ott's coloring" I would consider that an unusual Ipomoea turbinata...any photos available(?)... Ipomoea tricolor is always completely glabrous(no hair) and has seedpods that remain erect. Ipomoea hederacea and Ipomoea nil are hairy and have seedpods that remain erect. Ipomoea purpurea is hairty and has seedpods that refex to face the ground. There are no gardener oriented discussions that clarify how to properly identify different species excepth for the discussions posted here on the GW and at the forum devoted to Morning Glories at Davesgarden... Merchants and traders very commonly mislabel seeds as to proper botanical identity because they simply do not know how to differentiate between the species...or think that botanical accuracy is not particularly important...but for people who are very interested to know about preventing unintended crosses and/or doing intentional crosses the accurate botanical identity is in fact very important... Hope that helps... TTY,... Ron Here is a link that might be useful: Ipomoea tricolor in the PlantFiles