Candle_Tree, I had a strange coincidence happen a few hours ago. I was at a shop looking at gardening magazines on my way home from work, and was curious about one called, "Birds and "Blooms". I dropped it by accident, and when I picked it up it was opened on pg. 28 showing a large picture of MG 'Heavenly Blue' with an inserted picture of the "Moonflower". How very strange! I thought instantly, and that I must send this to Candle_Tree somehow so she will believe me. So I decided to incude my e-mail address in this posting, but saw that you shared yours. I will be in touch this week-end when more time permits, and we can talk outside the forum to our heart's content on the issues we have shared. Also, I do not feel that you should be without any seeds you want (without violating international laws that I will check out). I will get them to you in the appropriate seasons if you wish. After all, we need to cultivate also the "earth goddess" aspect in you as a budding horticulturist. A cultivated variety or cultivar means that humans choose to propagate/multiply a particular plant because it has desirable characteristics (disease-resistance, improved flowers or foliage over the species form, etc). These hybrid traits can occur by nature's cross-pollinating through butterflies, moths, or the wind - or by human nurture and selectivity. I confess that I am not informed fully enough on the pros and cons of genetic engineering with the plant kingdom's food crops, so I have no view. I'm sure that when we manipulate or bypass natural evolution, there can be a lot of consequences and/or rewards to be debated. Hopefully, only the best educated minds on either side of the controversy will be in the spotlight - not the opinionated and ignorant hysterics versus the greedy corporations. A cultivar name has been traditionall written in semi-quotes, such as Impomea ( the genus) tricolor (the species) 'Heavenly Blue' (cv). So I doubt that this term applies ot genetically engineered plants. It pleases me to no end that ou are attuned to the lack of education impacting the work force. Trust me, I see it here all the time with workers endangering themselves, others, and the environment by mixing and applying pesticides when they cannot even read the warnings and instructions on the label. (These are not people in the company I work for). I have approached them on several occasions about serious mistakes they make, and there is no language barrier - there is a lack of interest in safety concerns. My Spanish is good enough to realise that they don't know what they are doing. I have quite a concern about the use of chemicals, and I do use them wisely as a certified pesticide applicator for horticultural use - but not on food crops. At the same time I am not in agreement with using organic fertilisers over "chemical" ones. Everything physical in nature has a chemical basis, and for "organic" products to bash chemistry is simply absurd. Plants could not care less whether the source of fertiliser is organic or chemical because it can only absorb the needed elements in an ion form (cations or anions). It's a chemistry thing. So they don't absorb the nutrients in the way we apply them - no matter what the source. They go through a series of stages until a cation/anion usable form is reached to absorbed by the roots. Organic fertilisers have the disadvantage of not supplying enough of the "micronutrients" (iron, copper, manganese, etc.) so it had better be present in the soil in sufficient amounts to begin with. If it doesn't, nutritional deficiences will result for the plant and for us. Quite often, sufficient soil nutrients do not exist, especially in tropical soils. And the most element needed by agricultural crops as well as most foliage plants is nitrogen. Urea nitrogen is synthetically produced organic nitrogen that will convert into a usable form through the beneficial bacteria in the soil. It makes no difference whether it comes from seaweed, fish emulsion, or a synthetic urea-based nitrogen. The conversion process (via soil bacteria) will remain the same for it to be absorbed by the roots, and chemical fertilisers can provide a better and much cheaper source for nitrogen that is MEASURABLE for application.Organic fertilisers do not list their percentages of micronutrients because they are either not present, or they do not have a guarenteed percentage. (Take a rest, John_Z). You are a gem. I look forward to sharing with you via mail and/or e-mail, especially on social concerns. Respectfully, John_Z.

A little OT, but: My friend, who took a temp job at a nursery this season, just told me about this today. I never heard this before. She said the nursery she worked at sells seeds in bulk, is basically a mail order business, and they sold thousands and thousands of MG seeds this year. And they suspect not all to gardeners! I mean, who would plant 2,000 MG seeds in their flower bed? That's what individuals were ordering, one person ordered 12 bags of 2,000 seeds each. So if my neighbors see me acting strangely in the back yard some morning, they may wonder just what I have been sowing! Here is a link that might be useful: Trippin' on MG seed

That's beautiful!!! It's true about the hands,knees and back! PJ

katiesommer - Please consider the following regarding your GW membership : Consider enabling the GardenWeb members to send you a private message email...via the GardenWeb...you can do this by: 1) logging in and scrolling to the bottom of the page where is says "Member services" http://members.gardenweb.com/members/ 2) Edit Your Membership Details Going into your profile and scroll to near the bottom of the page and place a check in the box that states: a) Show my email address to: (in drop down menu) > Member b) check the box in front of "Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site." *You might also consider adding in your USDA zone in section 4 from the top of the page where it says "Garden Zone" and you can add in your climate zone Then , after you are done updating your display features look near the bottom of the page and click onto the gold tab that says "Save your Member profile" Your question is of a generalized and therefore somewhat 'off-topic' (which I would have preferred to answer in a separate thread or via private message) but being a relatively new member I will extend the courtesy of posting an the answer here. Morning Glories are twining climbing vines which require some other structure (twine, stakes, branches, etc., to twine their entire stems around in order to climb. Morning Glories do NOT produce the type of specialized tendrils of clinging vines (e.g., Cucurbitaceae) with or without adhering discs or aerial roots which enable other types of vines (Parthenocissus spp , Hedera spp ) to self-attach to a solid wall or structure of any material. Morning Glories do NOT produce the type of bio-chemicals excreted by the adhering discs or aerial roots of clinging vines cited in the paragraph above which will eventually damage the mortar between bricks and cause disintegration of wood. The fact that any MG or other plant comes from a commercial source is no guarantee that it is as labeled and in fact it is often the case that commercial sources do not know how to properly identify species including MG's. You want to be sure of what you got in any packet (?)...then post the seedlings and young plants on one of the forums where people with an established (long term) reputation for accurate identification can ID what you have growing... Enjoy your Morning Glories (!) P.S. - Please click onto my member name and send me a private message if you have MG related questions that may be off-topic and you are unsure of where or how to post them in the appropriate thread.